Icebergs and Ice Queens
by pottergrl15
Summary: As with Icebergs, there's more hiding beneath the surface...the same goes for the Ice Queen. There's more to Shapay than meets the eye. Which Troy is about to discover. My first Troypay! Finished!
1. Chapter 1

A/N – So…I was watching my sister's dvd of High School Musical the other day and I just had this idea. It seemed a little weird that Sharpay changed so quickly after the Breaking Free tryouts. She seemed alright with Gabby getting the lead and then hugged(?) Zeke…It just seemed a little OOC for her. So I started thinking…is that her real character, the Ice Queen/Princess, or is she just the best actress in the world? So I wrote this story, hope you like it.

Chapter One

Troy Botlon, Basketball King of the East High Wildcats, pushed past the swinging auditorium doors harshley. He let out a deep breath as the doors shut firm behind him. The school was going crazy! He thought that after the whole musicale fiasco with Gabrielle the students would be more accepting of different 'classes' of kids…but it was even worse! The students would go and mingle with the geeks, or the nerds, or the jocks, or the drama freaks, but then they would all go back to their own groups and tear down the others. It was insane!

He groaned as he walked down the aisle that lead to the stage, that wasn't even the worst part of it. He and Gabby had been going out for a couple of months now, ever since the musicale ended. Everything started out great…but then something changed. Gabby had become more clingy than Troy ever anticipated. Every time she saw him she would latch onto his arm and make a big scene, almost like she wanted the rest of the students to see that she was dating the B-Ball king. To be honest…he was getting pretty sick of it.

But Troy didn't have time to think on that as he heard the back stage door fly open. He quickly ducked behind a wall, the same wall that he and Gabby had hidden behind just a few months earlier. He peered around it, trying to see who it was who had just run onto the stage and was shocked to see that it was…Sharpay!

He was even more shocked to see that she was crying. He had never seen the Ice Queen cry before…he'd never really seen her show any emotion before…

Though, while he thought on it, something about that fact didn't seem quite right…

He brushed the thought aside as he watched Sharpay make her way to center stage.

"Eurgggg!" Sharpay yelled as she pulled her pink backpack off her shoulder and threw it onto the floor of the stage. She struggled with it for a moment or two as it got caught on her pink purse, but she quickly resolved that problem by throwing her purse down as well.

She let out another loud groan as she stiffly walked over to a small prop table that was set up near the corner of the stage. There wasn't much stuff on it, namely just some empty paint cans, some paint brushes, and a roll of used tape. The Art club had finished painting the set for the school's 'End of the Year Production' a few days ago.

Angrily, Sharpay knocked them off, not watching as they fell to the ground with a clank. Troy didn't notice either, he was too absorbed in watching Sharpay. Her hands were covering her eyes as she backed up to the wall near center stage, sliding down it to the floor, shoulders heaving as she cried.

Troy stood there for a few minutes in shock, just watching as Sharpay had a breakdown. He moved to leave his little alcove, to go comfort her, when her hands slid from her face and she looked up a the ceiling.

"This isn't fair!" she said. She was speaking normally, but with all her acting lessons, projecting just came naturally to her, and Troy could hear every word she said.

"I've done everything I can think of to prove you wrong!" she shouted, still staring at the ceiling, "But it isn't enough is it? Nothing is ever enough." She whispered.

She stood slowly, "Why did you have to say that mom?" she asked herself, she shook her head before mimicking someone, who Troy could only assume was her mother, "Sharpay, you can't act. You aren't the best, you won't always get the lead. There **is** someone out there better than you."

She bit her lip as she remembered her mother's words…the last words she had ever said to Sharpay. They had been angry words, they had gotten into an argument when Sharpay said she wanted acting classes after landing the lead in the third grade play.

She sighed, "But you were right…there was someone better than me…" she shook her head, hand balled into a fist by her chin and tears refilled her eyes. "It's not fair, I gave up everything to be the best! I gave up as much time as possible for all these stupid acting lessons." She threw her arms apart, "What do you want from me?!" she shouted, "I've got nothing left to give! I've got no time, I've got no life, I've got no friends!"

She fell to her knees, "I had to do it," she whispered, "I had to be the Ice Queen, I couldn't afford to have friends taking up all my time. I had to prove you wrong…but now what? Not ever Ryan will talk to me any more." Tears fell freely, up until now, Sharpay had been wiping them away furiously, trying to salvage her makeup, but she gave up. "I know what he says about me…I've heard him. He hangs out with all the jocks now, and I know what he says…he barely talks to me anymore..."

She took a deep breath as she cried harder, "He was the only one who knew me…who knew why I am the way I am…and now…" she let out a sob, "I can't even be myself around everyone…they'd think it was an act. No one knows me…no one wants to know me…The only friend I ever had besides Ryan forgot he was even my friend! I changed in the third grade, and everyone who knew me then forgot me now!"

She stood, "Does they think I like being like this?!" she shouted, "Do they think I like being the Ice Queen? The frigid bitch?" she started pacing across the stage, till she got to her pink purse, she glared at it, kicking it as far as she could. "I hate pink!" she yelled, "I hate these clothes! I hate these heels! I hate this make up!" She ferociously started swiping at her face, trying desperately to get the make up off. "I hate all of this!"

She sank down on the black piano bench, resting a hand on the keys. She had stopped crying admist her yelling, and was just staring at the keys. She strummed a few notes, before turning to face the keys.

She began a familiar tune, Troy stood mesmorized, he didn't know Sharpay knew how to play piano…

_I will not make the same mistakes that you did  
I will not let myself  
Cause my heart so much misery  
I will not break the way you did,  
You fell so hard  
I've learned the hard way  
To never let it get that far _

Because of you  
I never stray too far from the sidewalk  
Because of you  
I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt  
Because of you  
I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me  
Because of you  
I am afraid

I lose my way  
And it's not too long before you point it out  
I cannot cry  
Because I know that's weakness in your eyes  
I'm forced to fake  
A smile, a laugh everyday of my life  
My heart can't possibly break  
When it wasn't even whole to start with

Because of you  
I never stray too far from the sidewalk  
Because of you  
I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt  
Because of you  
I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me  
Because of you  
I am afraid

I watched you die  
I heard you cry every night in your sleep  
I was so young  
You should have known better than to lean on me  
You never thought of anyone else  
You just saw your pain  
And now I cry in the middle of the night  
For the same damn thing

Because of you  
I never stray too far from the sidewalk  
Because of you  
I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt  
Because of you  
I try my hardest just to forget everything  
Because of you  
I don't know how to let anyone else in  
Because of you  
I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty  
Because of you  
I am afraid

Because of you  
Because of you

By the last chorus of the song, Sharpay was in tears yet again, belting the lyrics, adding emotion to song. Troy was stunned, he watched as Sharpay slid off the stool and onto the floor for what must have been the third time in fifteen minutes.

"I can't be myself…I can't let anyone in," Sharpay whispered once her sobs subsided, "They'll just hurt me like you did…like Ryan is…I…I just…I can't…"

Just then, as Troy was about to step out of his hiding spot, the warning bell went off. Classes would start in five minutes.

He watched as she sharply turned her head to the clock on the wall. Shaking her head in sorrow. She took a few large deep breaths, claming herself down almost instantly. She grabbed her purse, pulling the pocket mirror out, examining her reflection.

"Well, at least acting was good for something," she said to herself, as she calmed herself down more. If others could act sad, she could act happy. She looked at herself, touching up her make up just enough so that no one could tell she had been crying. "You're the best damn actress in the world if people can't tell something's wrong," she told her reflection, attempting to smile but failing to pull it off. "Oh well," she muttered, putting her stuff away, "Ice Queen's don't smile…"

She got up, frowning, before taking a deep breath, setting her face, and walking out.

Troy hesitated a moment before finally leaving his hiding place. He stared at where Sharpay had been standing moments ago before looking at the door she went out of.

The bell rang again, making Troy look up at the clock. He was late, but that didn't seem to be the biggest problem of the day…that would be finding out just what Sharpay meant when she said be herself…she wasn't really an Ice Queen? Was she just acting that whole crying thing? Troy would have to find out…somehow…

A/N – So that's the end of Chappy one! It's a little weird, I know, but I'm thinking in the next chappy, Troy gets a better glimpse at just what Shapay acts like when she's not in school…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own HSM…or any of the songs that may or may not make an appearance throughout the fic.

Chapter Two

The final bell of the day would find Troy on his way to the auditorium for the 'End of the Year Production' meeting. The set was all done, now all that was left was for Ms. Darbus to say what play they'd be doing, and when the auditions were. The EYP was just a play, never a musical, so Troy didn't have to worry about a pairs audition; it would be all single monologues and such. But that also meant that it was up to Darbus on who would be paired with whom.

He shook his head clear of thoughts of being paired with a certain blonde…when he heard hushed voiced around the corner.

He stopped, peering over the edge to see Ryan and Sharpay walking towards him. He ducked back around, but then heard the click of Sharpay's heels stop short, so he listened.

"…don't understand why you're not coming to the meeting today," he heard Ryan say, he peered over again. "Darbus isn't going to be happy."

Sharpay sighed exasperatedly, "Just tell Ms. Darbus that my 'orthodontist' appointment was rescheduled, she'll know what I mean."

"Orthodontist?" Ryan asked, eyebrows scrunching in confusion. "But you don't need braces…"

Sharpay rolled her eyes, "Ryan…think! Use those brains that I know you have, what do I do on Fridays?"

Ryan thought for a moment, "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed as realization dawned on him, "You volunteer at the Nursing ho…"

He was cut off by Sharpay quickly putting her hand over his mouth, "Ryan!" She exclaimed, "What did I tell you about bringing up my volunteer work!" she hissed quietly at him.

"Right…sorry," he said sheepishly.

Sharpay smiled gently, "Can you also tell Ms. Darbus that I might be a little late for tomorrow's Saturday tryouts?"

"Sure…" he started, "Do I want to know why?"

"It's Cassie's birthday." She said simply, smiling more as Ryan got what she was talking about.

"Oh yeah," he nodded, "And let me guess, Princess Sharpay is going to read her favorite story?"

Sharpay laughed gently, "No, I couldn't read her whole story, those Harry Potter books would take a week to read. I'm just going to read her favorite part."

Just then a student came out of one of the class rooms and made his way down the hall, snapping the two siblings out of their siblingness and into the world of the school hall way.

"Right…" Ryan said, "So I'll tell her."

"You'd better." Sharpay snapped, walking off.

Troy shook his head as Sharpay walked quickly past him, not noticing him lurking around the corner. He waited till Sharpay and Ryan both left before stepping into the hall.

"Troy!" a voice called.

He inwardly groaned as he realized who it was, "Hey Gabby," he replied, turning to face her.

"So are you ready for the meeting?" She asked excitedly, latching onto his arm, "I think we definitely have a shot at getting the leads again."

"Uh…yeah…I completely forgot, but I can't make the meeting today, can you get the information for me?" he asked.

"Sure, but why can't you come?" she asked.

"I forgot I had a…dentist appointment. Yeah, a dentist appointment." He said, trying to sound like he didn't make it up on the spot.

"Oh, well okay!" Gabby giggled, "See you tomorrow!"

He watched her walk off towards the auditorium, "Yeah…tomorrow."

As soon as he was sure that she was in the auditorium, he ran for the exit hoping to make it to his car in order to follow Sharpay. As luck would have it, just as he reached his car, he saw her drive past, heading for the street. He quickly got in his old red Cadillac and followed after her.

He made sure to keep at a distance so Sharpay wouldn't notice him tailing her. She didn't and before he knew it, he watched her pull into the parking lot for the town's Nursing Home. Troy drove around the block so Sharpay wouldn't notice him. He pulled in the back way, watching as Sharpay disappeared around the corner of the building heading for the entrance.

He quickly got out of his car and ran to the entrance, managing to slip in while Sharpay and a nurse at the main desk were distracted by a woman pushing a man in a wheel chair. He quickly jumped behind a corner wall just as the nurse at the main desk turned back to her seat. He looked over watching as Sharpay pulled a red and white striped apron over her.

The main nurse huffed as she slumped in her seat. She blew a strand of her graying brown hair from her face before turning to Sharpay.

"Thank you Sharpay," she started, "for coming in so early. It's just that Lisa's sick and we can't afford her coming here and getting the residents sick as well, and I can't leave the desk since I'm the only one who knows how to work the computer, and you know that we don't really have enough workers to help out and…"

"Janice," Sharpay said, a laugh in her voice, "Breathe…"

Janice took a deep breath, beginning to feel a little better, "It's just…I know that you have your play meeting today and…"

"It's alright," Sharpay cut her off, "It's no big deal."

Troy nearly fell over at this. _Sharpay_…not caring about a play! What was she smoking?

Janice smiled softly before getting up and leading Sharpay off to a side room. Troy leaned over a little more but pulled back suddenly when Janice appeared at the desk again. He glanced over, back flattened against the wall as Sharpay appeared again.

"So what's on the to-do list?" she asked.

Janice flipped through a few pages on a clip board before answering. "Let's see…the third floor sheets need to be changed…the second floor bedpans have to be collected for cleaning and replaced…and, if you could, some of the residents on the first floor are…lonely…they haven't gotten many visitors and…"

Sharpay smiled, "Of course I'll visit them, see how they're doing."

"You are a god send Shar," Janice added, smiling, "Thank you."

"No problem," she said, brushing it off and walking down the hall to the elevator.

Troy looked down the hall he was hiding in; opposite of the one Sharpay had just gone down. There was a stairwell at the end. He crept down the hall and made it up the stairs in time to see Sharpay walk into her first room.

Troy watched as Sharpay changed all the sheets on the third floor, smiling the whole time as if she didn't even notice that she was in a stinky, old person's home. He watched as she collected the bedpans on the second floor, not even grimacing when she had to empty some of them, humming.

Soon she was finished, and only had to visit some of the residents on the first floor. Troy soon fell into a small routine. Sharpay would walk into a room while Troy stood just outside the door way, he'd listen to her short conversations, then hid in the room she'd been in just before till she moved into the next room.

Most of the conversations she had with the residents were simple, 'hello, how are you today's, but the last room she visited was the one that got to him.

The last room was down the other hall, the one he'd hid in when he got there, but most of the doors were shut, meaning that the residents either weren't there or were asleep. As she walked, Sharpay started to softly sing 'Breaking Free'…Troy made a note to ask her eventually how she knew the words and notes to that song.

She stopped singing just as she reached the last door. She knocked softly on the frame, leaning against it as the occupant turned to look at her.

"Ahhh, if it isn't little Miss Evans," the old male said, sitting up in his bed, "Come to visit an old man like me?"

Sharpay smiled, "Mr. Livingston, you are not an old man."

"Oh I'm not, am I?"

"No…you are ancient," she said matter-of-factly…right before laughing, getting a laugh from the old man as well.

She stepped into the room when Mr. Livingston held out his hand for her to come. Once she took it he spoke, "You know, I thought I heard an angel singing in the hall just now…and I knew it was you."

Troy could almost hear the blush and smile in her voice when she spoke next, "Thank you Mr. Livingston…" There was a lag in the conversation as the two just stood smiling in their comfortable silence. "So how are you doing today?"

"Ahh…" he trailed, "Same old, same old, aches and pains."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sharpay said sincerely. Troy could tell that she cared for the old man. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Nah," he said, "I'm just old."

Sharpay smiled, glancing down at her watch, reading 6:15, her eyes widened, "I'm sorry Mr. Livingston, but I have to go now. Don't want to be late."

He nodded before reaching over and plucking a small flower from the vase by his bedside. He held out the small blue flower to her, "A flower, my lady?"

Sharpay gently took the flower from his outstretched hand, "Thank you, good sir," she said with a light medieval accent, "I shall cherish it forever."

Mr. Livingston smiled and nodded his head as she left. Troy hid in the stair well, waiting till Sharpay walked by towards the main desk to say good bye to Janice for the day. He could see Janice call to Sharpay before she left so he crept a little closer.

"Here Sharpay," she said, handing her a small piece of paper, "It's Lisa's pay for the day. She called and said that she wanted you to have it for taking over."

Sharpay shook her head, unwilling to accept it, "No, I can't."

"But you earned it."

"Janice, what's the meaning of volunteer?" Sharpay asked.

"You don't get paid." Janice answered knowingly.

Sharpay nodded, "Besides, god knows I have enough money already," she muttered in reference to her father being a lawyer. She said good bye one last time before walking out the door.

Troy ran back down the hall and out the exit in the stairwell in order to make it around the corner of the building before Sharpay saw him. He waited, hidden by the cars as Sharpay walked past him. She paused, fiddling with the small blue flower in her hand. "At least someone cares…" she whispered to herself before heading to her car as Troy did the same.

He thought that Sharpay was done for the day, but that wasn't the case. He followed her as she made her way to the town's athletic center making him all the more confused as to why she was there. She didn't appear to be a very athletic girl…but then again, she didn't appear to be a very compassionate human being either.

He crept up along the building watching as Sharpay made her way to a bathroom. He waited a minute or two only to see her walk out in a white robe or something, check her watch at 6:25 and head to the back room. So he ran around the building, peering through the window to see Sharpay walking over to a group of children dressed in similar white robes, and an adult, also in a white robe. He watched as Sharpay led the children through some stretches and exercises, realizing that it was a karate class when the instructor went over various kicks and blocks, using Sharpay to demonstrate.

He hid outside, watching, for only about an hour when Sharpay looked at her watch, 7:55, said something to the sensei, and ran out.

Somehow Troy managed to follow her to her next location…a simple house near the middle of town. Thankfully, this house was surrounded by bushes, making it easier for Troy to hide out and watch. He made it to a bush on the side of the house and followed it around as he heard Sharpay knock on the front door.

A short, frail, red headed woman opened the door. She looked down at her watch, 8:05, smiling softly at Sharpay. "You're late."

"I know," Sharpay exclaimed, "Karate ran late and I had to rush here and I didn't even get to change and I…"

"It's alright," she sighed, "Well, come in, must get on with the lesson."

Troy followed them through the window, watching as the woman led her into a small room with an old piano. Sharpay sat down and the woman placed sheet music in front of her before she walked to the opposite end of the piano. Moment later a beautiful melody filled the air. Troy recognized it; his mother loved playing classical music when he was younger, so of course he knew it. It was Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto, one of the most difficult pieces to play. It was slower than he remembered it, but then again it must be hard for Sharpay to play with such small hands…hands that would fit perfectly with his ow…

He mentally smacked himself for thinking that as he continued to listen to Sharpay play. It was beautiful; it even made Troy sad when it was over. He looked into the window to see the instructor shaking her head at Sharpay. He couldn't quite hear what she was saying, she spoke very quietly, but from Sharpay's expression, he could tell that she was critiquing the performance. Sharpay's expression drooped as the instructor picked up the music and replaced it with something else.

That was how most of the next hour was spent, with Sharpay playing an assortment of classical pieces. It wasn't until about 8:50 that the woman took up the final piece of classical music and, from what Troy could see, let Sharpay pick from a large selection. She immediately picked a bright green book and put it on the piano, beginning to play a song as soon as the book was open.

Troy knew this one too. Chad's mom had moved on from her Phantom of the Opera stage, discovering the wonder of the other Broadway shows. He recognized the song as 'Defying Gravity' from the musical Wicked. He'd never admit it to Chad, but he really wanted to go and see that musical during the three day break in a few weeks, before school ended. The only problem was that he really didn't have anyone to go with. He'd discovered recently that Gabriella was a religious girl. She refused to have anything to do with witchcraft, witches, even the Ouija board. They'd been playing one time at Taylor's house and Gabby refused to even be in the same room with them. She refused to kiss him until he went to church with her to 'cleanse' himself.

So…seeing a musical about witches and wizards was out of the question. (A/N – I had a friend like that once. Hypocritical botch who wanted nothing to do with magic. Wouldn't have anything to do with Harry Potter or Wicked…even though she watched Charmed and Lord of the Rings.)

He was brought back to the world of reality by the front door shutting. Somewhere amidst his thoughts Sharpay had finished the song and was currently heading down to her car. So Troy did the same.

It was around 9:10 when Sharpay finally pulled into the driveway of her house. Troy parked across the street with his lights off so she wouldn't see him. He wasn't going to watch her, just wanted to make sure she got in alright. He waited as she pulled something heavy from the back seat of her car. It was a backpack which looked like it was crammed full with books.

That was when it hit him. He and Sharpay only had one class together, AP English. The AP classes rarely stopped giving homework and assignments till the day before the last day of school. Was Sharpay in other AP classes? It would make sense with the load of her backpack. He looked at his clock. How long would it take her to do that work? It was already really late.

He thanked whatever powers that were looking out for him that he didn't have that much homework that night…unlike Sharpay.

He glanced up to see Sharpay make her way into her house, shutting the door behind her, before he drove home to ponder what Sharpay would be up to tomorrow…

A/N – Yeah, I know Troy seems a little stalkerish. But if you saw Sharpay, the Ice Queen nearly have a breakdown; wouldn't you be curious as to what she's hiding? He's seeing the actual person behind her façade. But just a warning, Sharpay does a lot more than what she lets on at school, a whole lot more. Where she volunteers the rest of the week, the sports and lessons she takes will also be discovered. There are only about two chapters before one where Sharpay makes a dramatic decision that may lead to some harsh and angry words from Ryan. But you'll have to wait to find out what it is.

P.S. I know Sharpay may seem really OOC, but that is her true self in my fic. The volunteering and things like that, why she does it will be explained later.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Troy yawned for what must have been the 12th time that morning as he sat in his car, just a little ways down the street from the Evan's residence. The meeting for the EYP was supposed to start at 10, so Troy figured that Sharpay would have to be out of the house by 8 or 9 is she was going to be 'late'. He really wanted to know what she could be doing that was so important that it would make _her_ late for _play_. It was nearly 8:30 now and Sharpay still had yet to leave her house. He was starting to think that maybe she wasn't going anywhere, but then he remembered it was Cassie's birthday today…who ever she was.

'Maybe Cassie is her dog or something?' Troy thought to himself. He was about to leave when he saw Sharpay walk out of her house. She had a duffle bag with her which she threw unceremoniously into the passenger's seat of her car before getting in. He started up his car and soon began his pursuit to discover the mystery of Sharpay…

…but he never expected her to go to the hospital.

He followed her through the parking garage, a few cars behind her, wondering what on earth she would have to do at a hospital. Was Cassie a relative? A doctor? A nurse? He would soon find out. He parked a few spaces away from Sharpay, noticing how they both didn't care where they parked. Whenever he went to the mall or something with Chad, Taylor, and Gabby they would always wait a ridiculously long time for someone to pull out of a spot. Whereas Troy would just drive up to the third, fourth, or even roof level if it meant more space to park.

He tried to follow her through the hospital, but didn't manage to do such a great job. He'd followed her to the end of one wing of the hospital…but then he lost her. He knew she was in that wing, since there wasn't any other one attached to it, but he didn't know where she was. She moved so fast, it was like she'd walked those halls everyday or something.

He was just about to give up after fifteen minutes with no sign of Sharpay, when a noise caught his attention. It sounded like cheering…little kids cheering. So he followed the noise till he found what was causing it. Sharpay stood in the middle of a crowd of children dressed in a simple blue princess gown. It was the perfect shade of blue; he could see her eyes even from his distance away. (A/N – I know Sharpay has brown eyes, but in my story she has blue (like Ryan))

He looked up just above Sharpay's head was a banner that read 'Happy Birthday Cassie'. So Cassie was one of the kids!

Troy watched as Sharpay picked up a small brown haired girl and spun her around, getting a laugh out of her. With out knowing it, he began to walk closer to the room where all this was going on. He would have probably ended up walking right in if it hadn't been for the nurse on duty.

"Sir?" she asked, "Do you need help with something?"

Troy snapped out of his trance and looked over at the nurse. She as a rather large woman, but not fat, with stunning dark skin and black hair pulled into a bun.

"Oh um…no," Troy stuttered, "I…I was just passing by and saw this…what is this?"

"Oh that?" she asked pointing to where Sharpay was now standing in front of a bunch of sitting children. "Sharpay Evans, she's a junior at East High, she comes here on Saturday's for an hour or two to read to the children." She laughed slightly, "She goes all out for them. She dresses up as a princess and calls it 'Princess Sharpay's Story Hour'."

"Really?" Troy asked, staring as Sharpay placed a small plastic tiara on the brown haired girls head.

"Yup," the nurse replied, "If there's a birthday, she crowns the child Lord or Lady for the day, gives 'em a tiara and crown and everything."

There was silence as they both listened to Sharpay talk to the girl, who Troy assumed to be Cassie. "Alright Cassie, today's your birthday and you know what that means right?"

"You're gonna read my favite story?!" the girl exclaimed excitedly.

"Yup," Sharpay said, laughing, "So what'll it be?"

Cassie thought for a moment before practically jumping up, "Harry Potter!"

Sharpay smiled, "That's a really long story," she pause as Cassie frowned, "So I'm going to read your most favorite part, alright?" Cassie nodded eagerly as Sharpay pulled out all six books from a messenger bag beside her. "So what's your most favorite part ever?"

"The dueling club!" she shouted, fidgeting in her seat from anticipation.

Sharpay cracked open the second book, "I'm going to do something special for you today Cassie," she said, "After all it's not everyday you turn five right?" Cassie nodded, "I'll read the chapter before and after as well."

"Yay!" Cassie shouted, this time jumping up to hug Sharpay.

Troy smiled as he watched her settle the child and began to read, laughing slightly as she made up different voices for the characters.

"She loves those children," the nurse muttered.

"Why are they here?" Troy asked.

"Honey," she started, "This is the children's wing, part of the Children's Hospital. Sick and injured children come here for treatments and things."

Troy's eyes widened as he looked to where Sharpay was. He looked at the children, noticing for the first time that some sported neon colored casts or painted crutches, one was in a wheel chair, three were bald, and one was wearing dark glasses. He looked over at Cassie, squinting; he was able to make out scars along her face…burns…

Troy stood there, listening with the nurse as Sharpay read the three chapters for the children. He realized then how different Sharpay really was, how much of herself she was hiding from everyone. She really was the best damn actress in the world. If he hadn't known that she had been crying yesterday, he wouldn't have noticed that something was wrong. She acted like such a bitch, like such an ice queen with a heart frozen solid…but that wasn't who she was at all! She was a sweet, kind, caring, compassionate person who just didn't want to get hurt. He couldn't believe that he never noticed that Sharpay had a soft side. In just the past day he'd learned more about her true self than ever. If everyone knew she was really like this, they'd have to love her as much as he did…

'Wait a minute,' he thought to himself, 'Love her as much as I do?' He looked at her, mimicking the characters, capturing the attention of the children so thoroughly that he doubted that their attention could be swayed even if Santa Claus appeared right then and there with gifts for all of them. He smiled, watching her, 'Yeah…I do…'

Just then, Sharpay snapped the book closed and stood up. The story time was over! Troy's eyes widened as he searched around for a place to hide before Sharpay saw him. He hid behind an empty nurse's station just as Sharpay headed out to say good bye to the nurse.

"Hey Penny," he heard her say, "I'm gonna head out now alright?"

"Sure," Penny said, "Thanks again for doing this Shar."

"It's nothing. I love kids." She said. He heard her start to leave but then stop. "Hey, Penny…I noticed Jason wasn't there…"

"Oh…" Penny said, Troy could tell something was wrong…and apparently, so could Sharpay.

"What happened?" she asked desperately.

Penny took a deep breath, "Jason…stopped responding to the Chemo."

Sharpay gasped, "What?"

Penny nodded, "They're going to transfer him next week to a different hospital, in New York. They said the New York treatment centers are making advancements for children who aren't responding to the treatments."

Sharpay was speechless, "Is…when…"

"He leaves next Saturday." Penny answered, knowing that Sharpay was taking it hard. She laughed a little, "He refused to leave till he heard one more story."

Sharpay smiled sadly, tears filling her eyes. The little boy, Jason, reminded her so much of Ryan, a blonde haired, blue eyed, little tyke. She nodded slowly, before starting to walk off.

"Oh Sharpay!" Penny called, Sharpay turned, "Pinocchio."

That was all Sharpay needed to hear before she continued on her trek, making a note to go get an extra copy of that book.

Troy sat there a moment longer taking in all that he'd heard. This boy, Jason, must have had Cancer…Troy shook his head, his grandmother had died from Cancer when he was in the third grade, he'd taken it hard. So hard, that his parents sent him off to Basketball camp that summer to help him take his mind off of it. 'Poor Sharpay,' he thought, getting up to head to the parking garage.

He arrived, noticing that the fourth level was nearly empty, providing him with very little cover to get to his car. Sharpay was already in her car and if he tried to run across the lot to his car, she'd be sure to notice him. He crept along the cars as close to his own as he could, but stopped short. Sharpay wouldn't notice him run out. She was sitting in her car, crying.

He ran to his car, ignoring the urge to comfort her. If she knew he'd followed her there, he'd be in for a very hard slap…and possibly a kick to a place he _really_ didn't want to be kicked. A few minutes later, he spotted Sharpay starting to pull out, and went to follow her to the school for the EYP meeting.

Troy managed to take a short cut once they entered the town giving him enough time to make it to the auditorium before Sharpay even pulled into the parking lot.

"Hey!" Gabby shouted as she saw Troy heading down the main isle towards the stage. "Where have you been? The meeting started fifteen minutes ago!"

Troy glanced at the clock, 10:15, "Sorry," he muttered, "I overslept."

'It's not like I'd miss anything important anyway,' he thought to himself. The Saturday EYP meeting was always just a bunch of acting exercises to get the cast ready for the auditions. At least, that's what Ryan told them.

Ryan had said that every year the EYP was always the same thing with Darbus. She'd feel guilty about working the cast from the Musicale too hard and try to surprise them with a fun play. She'd get the set built and painted, leaving them all to guess. Then on Friday she'd have a meeting where she'd hint about the play, and on Saturday have a bunch of exercises and challenges to get everyone pumped. One more meeting would be that Monday where she'd collect the information, and then Auditions would be the rest of the week till she announced call backs on Friday for the next day.

They still didn't know exactly what the play would be, Ryan had a few guesses but none that he was willing to share.

"…do you Troy?" he heard Gabby ask.

"Huh? What?" he asked, snapping back to reality.

"Yo man, pay attention much?" Chad asked jokingly punching him on the arm. "And I thought this was _your_ thing."

"Chad, stop being such an ignoramus," Taylor said smacking her boyfriend upside the head.

Troy glanced at them, after much convincing that the both had nothing better to do with the Scientific Decathlon being over and Basketball not starting up again till late in the summer, they'd been able to get Taylor and Chad to agree to try out for the production.

Gabby shook her head, "We were just wondering how Sharpay managed to be in 17 productions in only about three years."

"You know," Troy started, suddenly interested, "I have no idea."

"Why don't you just ask Ryan?" Kelsi suggested. She had only been apart of the school since she was a freshman so she didn't really know how many plays Sharpay had been in.

"Good idea small person," Chad said.

"Chad!" Taylor shouted, smacking him again, "Her name is Chelsea!"

"Kelsi," Kelsi quietly corrected.

"Kelsi!" Taylor amended.

In that time, while they were bickering, Gabriella had called Ryan over to them. "Hey Ryan!" she said.

"Hey guys," he waved, sitting down on the stage where they were chillin', "What's up?"

"We were just wondering how Sharpay managed to be in 17 productions in three years." Gabby repeated.

"Oh, well um…let's see…" he said, squinting his eyes like he was thinking. "Every year we have the Fall Play, the Spring Musical, and the End of the Year Production. Sharpay got the lead in 6th grade to 10th and the lead in the Fall Play this year…so that's about…"

"16 productions," Gabriella and Taylor said at the same time.

"Yeah, and…" he trailed when Gabby cut him off.

"But why are you counting 6th grade and middle school?"

"Well, the middle school here starts in the 6th grade, and it's connected to the high school, it's just in a separate wing so we don't really interact that much. 6th – 12th grade is considered in the same school."

"Oh…" she said in realization, "But where did the 17th one come from."

"Well in elementary school Sharpay got the lead in the third grade play…and fourth…and fifth…" he trailed zoning out a little, till Taylor snapped her fingers in front of his face, "And when she got the lead in the fifth, there was a…prize? I guess you could say. Whoever got the lead in the fifth grade got to get a lead for the sixth grade one. Apparently they didn't have any good actors that year and needed someone with talent…"

"So is it any surprise they chose me?" said an arrogant voice from behind them. They all turned to see Sharpay standing there, arms crossed, with a smirk on her face. "Talking about my triumphs are you? No surprise, I know I'm great." And with that she walked onto the stage and disappeared behind the curtains.

"God she is so annoying!" Taylor remarked, earning an agreement from almost everyone. Though, the one who didn't agree was a shock, for it wasn't Ryan as many would have suspected…it was…Troy…

No one really noticed, but he was off in his own little world as their hurtful words continued. He was staring at the spot where Sharpay had just disappeared through. Her eyes…there was something different about her eyes. Her face was happy, smirking even…but her eyes…they were sad. She was hurting and not letting anyone see it.

Troy was about to go on stage to look for her when Ms. Darbus appeared and clapped her hands signaling for them to all sit. It seemed as though she had hoped that Sharpay wouldn't be too late, and was waiting till her favorite student arrived to begin. Troy sat down at the end of their group, glancing casually over at Sharpay…sitting by herself. He frowned, her face was set in her Ice Queen mask and her arms were crossed over her chest. He squinted; he could tell she was breathing deep and fast, like she was trying to keep calm or something.

But he barely had time to think on it, Ms. Darbus started the meeting forcing them all to participate in her 'acting exercises' or as Ryan liked to call them her 'instruments of humiliation'. Troy watched as everyone went through their improvs and group exercises, but his gaze kept drifting over to Sharpay.

They had just finished their exercises of projection when Ms. Darbus told them to settle down. This time, Troy managed to subtly move the group closer to where Sharpay was sitting.

"Now my fine group of Thespians," she projected to the group, "I'm sure you are all wondering what fabulous production we will be putting on and I feel much obliged to tell you." She paused for dramatic effect, "The production this year, for the end of school, will be…"

She paused only briefly, but Troy swore he could hear Sharpay whisper to herself the word Midsummer.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream!" Ms. Darbus shouted as the group erupted into applause.

Troy glanced over at Sharpay, giving her a questioning glance. How did _she_ know the play?

Sharpay glanced up, fixing a glare on him, "_What_ are you staring at Bolton?!"

Troy shook his head, he had seen so much of nice Sharpay it was hard to remember that she was supposed to act mean at school. He turned back to hear his friends talking about what parts they wanted and what not.

Ms. Darbus continued to talk of what the play was about before finally giving them the let go around 12 when she realized they were all too caught up in their plans to audition. Sharpay grabbed her purse and hurried out of the Auditorium.

"Hey, guys I gotta go," he said, they all looked at him, "Dad wants to brush up on Basketball, make sure I'm not rust after one month and stuff."

"Okay!" Gabriella shouted, giving him a hug, "See you later!"

"Yeah…" he said, waving as he walked out.

He must have been a master at sneaking past Sharpay or she was just too preoccupied to notice him following her, but either way he managed to follow her to her next secret location. He had a feeling that what he saw yesterday was just the tip of the iceberg.

He was right. The next stop Sharpay made was to a small field down one of the residential streets. He recognized it from when he was younger, it was where the little league teams practiced during the seasons. But what would Sharpay be doing there?

His question was answered when he saw her pick up her duffle back and head to the small concrete hut where the rest rooms were. He hid behind the empty concession counter and waited for her to reappear. She came out a minute later wearing a simple old yellow t-shirt and a pair of green sweatpants. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail with a headband to keep her bangs from her eyes. Under her arm was a soccer ball.

Troy stared at her a moment, he had never seen Sharpay look so…grunge down…before. She was stunning in her simplicity. She had a small smile on her face, indicating to Troy that she was much more comfortable in those kinds of clothes.

He watched her jog out to the middle of the field where a man was walking towards her. She stopped short and they exchanged a few words that Troy couldn't hear. Once they finished, the man began to coach Sharpay into playing soccer. (A/N – If anyone has seen She's the Man, think like that whole Viola being coached by Duke scene)

The man had her run laps, do some push ups, some stretching. Then had her run with the ball, kick it at the goal while he blocked it, kicked it at her so she could stop it with her head and body, and had her play goalie. He practiced offensive and defensive playing, and demonstrated how to do some jumping kicks.

Sharpay was really good. But that left Troy to wonder why she didn't try out for any of the teams at school? The girl's soccer team could definitely use someone like Sharpay to play with them.

The coach and Sharpay started to cool down from their practice by playing hacky-sack with the soccer ball, keeping it off the ground with their body, legs, and head. The coach checked his watch, catching the ball as Sharpay softly head bunted it to him. They exchanged a few more words, Troy could see her smiling, she must have done well.

The man left as Sharpay jogged back to the restroom to get changed again. Her clothes were slightly muddy from the soccer ball and exercises. She emerged a few minutes later, face still a tab bit red, before heading back to her car with Troy following her all the while.

The next place they stopped was somewhere even more unexpected than the hospital…McDonald's. Troy watched as Sharpay pulled into a parking space and head into the building. Sharpay had always given off the aura of a body conscious girl, worried about her weight and figure…but there she was, about to eat in McDonald's of all places.

He glanced down at his clock, 1:47, nearly two hours after he usually ate lunch so he pulled around the drive through, getting himself a number two with a coke. He then parked near the side windows where he could eat in his car, while still able to see just what Sharpay would be eating. He was shocked to see her sit down with a Big Mac and fries. He really didn't know anything about her, except what she put off in school, he realized. The Ice Queen Sharpay would have never even touched a salad from this place.

Sharpay must have been starving; she ate the whole thing in like five minutes. But that was understandable to Troy, after an average basketball practice he'd end up eating two servings of his mom's cooking in five minutes as well. Sharpay got up a few minutes later and walked out the door heading to her next destination.

A rather creepy looking house loomed in the distance as Troy followed Sharpay to what he assumed to be her last destination. Unfortunately for him, Sharpay parked directly in front of the creepy house and headed up to the door. He slowed down to a crawl while he watched a large round woman with brown curly hair quickly usher her into the house. Troy quickly drove around the block, till he was behind the house and parked on the other side of the street. He ran up to the back of it, there weren't a lot of bushes to hide behind so he did the best he could.

He crept up to an open window and saw the round woman sitting at a piano with Sharpay standing at the end of it. The woman began to play a song Troy knew to be from Carmen, but didn't quite recall the name of. Sharpay stood there, perfectly poised, hitting all the right notes and crescendo-ing when the music did. But suddenly in the middle of it, her voice cracked slightly and the round woman stopped playing.

"Vat ees dees?" she said, a thick French accent lacing her words, "Vat vas dat?"

Sharpay rubbed her throat a little as she spoke, "Sorry Miss Dela…"

"Tut tut tut," the woman replied giving Sharpay a look.

Sharpay sighed, "Désolé Mademoiselle Delamater," she rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry Mademoiselle Delamater."

Madam nodded, "You 'ave been projecting, 'ave you not?"

"Oui Mademoiselle Delamater."

Madam sighed, "You know you are projecting wrong, do you not?" Sharpay nodded, "Eet vill strain your vocal cords."

"Il n'arrivera pas encore," Sharpay replied, "It will not happen again."

"Eet better not," the woman said simply, "Let us finish La Habañera."

Sharpay nodded, "Qui mon bel enseignant."

Madam smirked at that as she continued to play. She loved getting praised by her students. (Mon bel enseignant My beautiful teacher)

Soon enough they had finished La Habañera and had moved on a song from Mozart's The Magic Flute. (The one from Miss Congeniality…I think…)

Madam smashed the keys near the end of the piece, "No, no, no, you are doing eet all wrong."

Sharpay sighed, rubbing her forehead this time. Troy couldn't blame her, that woman was annoying. "J'essaie," she muttered, "I'm trying."

"Vell, trying ees not goot enough," the instructor said, "You canno' _try_ you must du!"

Sharpay merely nodded and continued where Troy expected her to argue and get angry.

Once she finished that song, Madam had her sing two more operatic pieces before allowing her to choose a modern song to do. Like the day before Sharpay chose a song from Wicked, she sang the Wizard and I, completely acapella and sounded wonderful…even Madam couldn't critique her.

Sharpay bowed slightly as she finished singing and Madam led her to the door.

"Bon au revoir," Sharpay said as she headed down the steps.

"Vous voir la semaine prochaine," Madam replied shutting the door behind her.

Sharpay let out a low groan, "Vous voir la semaine prochaine," she mimicked, "See you next week."

It was four o' clock now, and even though Troy doubted that Sharpay had any more secret things to do today, he followed her back to her house anyway. He watched as she dragged her stuff out of her car and headed inside.

Troy sat in his car a moment longer thinking things over till he came to a conclusion. He wasn't going to follow Sharpay any longer…no…he was going to go with her…

A/N – So…that's the third chappy, next one will involve Sharpay finding out that Troy knows about her secret…how will she react? What will she do? What will happen tomorrow?

P.S. The French translations are from an online translator so it may not be very good.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

A loud pounding on the door drew Sharpay's wandering attention away from the various going-ons outside the kitchen window and towards the front door. She glanced at the kitchen clock, 10 AM. Who in their right mind would be at her house at 10? Her dad left for work early, Ryan left a while ago for the park to play some B-Ball with the team, and she was just about to make breakfast.

She groaned as the pounding resumed. She grabbed her steaming cup of tea with milk and headed for the front door. "I'm coming, hold on!" She shouted, unlocking the door and opening it to reveal none other than Troy Bolton standing on her doorstep.

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him standing before her. Troy hadn't been to her house in nearly 8 years…what was he doing there?

Troy could tell that she was too shocked to talk so he went first, "Hey Sharpay," he said simply smiling a little.

"I…what…huh?" she rambled still not able to grasp that he was at her house…in the morning…while she was in her pjs.

She was barely up that morning, soccer had taken a lot out of her the day before and she spent most of the afternoon and evening trying to finish her AP Bio homework.

"Um…can I come in?" he asked, trying not to look at her. She was wearing baggy black pajama bottoms with a tight dark red tank top which left little to the imagination of her…womanly figure…

Sharpay just nodded, stepping aside to let him in. As soon as the door shut behind him, she seemed to snap out of her shock.

"What are you doing here Bolton?" she snapped at him, glaring.

Troy unconsciously flinched when she said his name…she really was a great actress…or bi-polar…

"I uh…I…" he just couldn't seem to get the words out. How was he supposed to tell her he'd been following her around for the last two days like a stalker? How was he supposed to tell her that he knew her secret? That he knew what she did with her time out of school?

"You what?" she bit off; "Spit it out!"

"I know what you're hiding!" he said quickly. He thought he'd said it too quickly because Sharpay just stared at him for a moment.

"What?" she asked softly, unsure of what exactly he knew she was hiding.

A small smile made its way to his face, "I know about what you're really like."

Sharpay scoffed at that, "Right," she said sarcastically, "And what makes you think that this isn't how I normally am?"

"Because I saw you cry," he said, staring her in the eye so she would know he wasn't lying, "Friday…in the auditorium…during free period…I saw you…"

Alarm flashed quickly through her eyes before it was masked, "Yeah and?" she asked, "What makes you think that I wasn't just practicing a monologue for the auditions?"

"Because I saw where you went after school." He said, smiling smugly. He'd caught her.

Her eyes flashed with fear before once again masking in anger, "What?!" she shouted, "You followed me! What are you some kind of stalker? Do you watch me come home? Follow me up to my house? Watch me undres…"

She was cut off from her rant by Troy placing his hand over her mouth. "I was worried about you," he said softly, "I've never seen you cry like that before and I wanted to make sure you were alright."

He removed his hand as Sharpay stared at him, "And instead of just asking me…" she started, "you decided to stalk me?!"

Troy rolled his eyes, why couldn't she make this easy? "Because you would have acted like everything was fine and given me an attitude!" he shouted.

Sharpay quieted down, she'd never heard Troy yell before…at least not at her. She really did hate to make him angry, she hated being mean to people but it had become a defense mechanism…whenever someone got close to finding out something about her, she'd push them away. Obviously that wouldn't work with Troy…he'd found out on his own with out her knowing…shame on her.

"Sorry," she mumbled, head bowed.

He sighed, "It's alright," he replied letting them fall into an awkward silence. Neither really knew what to say. Troy didn't want to push Sharpay farther away than she already was, not when he was beginning to see a new side to her, and Sharpay didn't know if she really wanted someone to know her secret.

But the more she thought about it, the more she remembered the better times she had shared with Troy…back when they had been friends in elementary school. Since kindergarten, Troy had been one of her best friends, her only friend besides Ryan. They were pretty much inseparable up until the third grade. School was ending and Sharpay had gotten the lead in the third grade play that they would show on the last day of school. Troy hadn't been able to go; his grandmother had died a few days earlier from Cancer and Sharpay understood. But the day after the last day of school was when things started to change. Troy went off to Basketball camp leaving Sharpay and Ryan alone. Sharpay had gone to her mother begging and pleading for acting lessons. She really loved to act and might have wanted to make a career out of it.

Unfortunately she annoyed her mother to no end with her endless pleases. Her mother was going to work, the night shift at the hospital, she was a nurse, when she finally snapped. She had turned to Sharpay as she tugged her mother's uniform to get her attention, and said that she would never be a great actress and that someone would be out there better than her. It really hurt Sharpay that her own mother would think that of her; think so little in her abilities.

The next thing Sharpay knew, her father was getting a phone call that there had been an accident. A drunk driver had hit her mother's car…she died on impact. Sharpay had made it her life's goal to prove her mother wrong, to get to lead every time, to make her proud of her daughter. She spent the summer at acting lessons and was so ready to show her best friend Troy all the different things she had learned…but something had changed. He came back and started to hang out with the new kid Chad, who he met at camp. He barely said two words to Sharpay…he didn't even notice that her mother had died…and that hurt her even more than her mother's words…

But she had had so much fun with Troy before that…and now, she didn't have anyone anymore. Ryan had sworn not to tell anyone what she was like…but he wasn't around anymore and she was getting lonely. Maybe Troy knowing wasn't such a bad thing…one more person knowing her secret almost made her feel good…like there was someone who could get to know her, Sharpay the person, not Sharpay her frigidness. Maybe…it wouldn't be too bad…

"Sharpay?" Troy asked after a moment of her staring off into space, "Sharpay?" he asked again, shaking her from her thoughts. "Are you alright?"

She looked into his eyes, the two pools of sky blue, and saw sincerity behind them. He wasn't just being a jerk, threatening to tell everyone her secret; he was truly interested in just being her friend again. She nodded softly, "Yeah, I'll be fine…" she took a deep breath, "Do you…want some breakfast?" she asked lamely.

"Well, I am…" but his words were drowned out by a low rumbling from his stomach.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said, laughing slightly as he blushed in embarrassment. "Come one, the kitchen's this way."

She led him down the hall to the kitchen, motioning for him to take a seat at one of the high stools by the counter as she set her tea down. She went over to the cabinets, rummaging around for a minute before turning to Troy, "Pancakes good for you?"

He nodded and she pulled out everything she'd need, mixing it all together, and in no time had a stack of pancakes on the counter for them both to eat. She set out a plate and fork for Troy, setting the syrup before them as she took her seat across from him.

When she looked up from taking a few pancakes she noticed him staring at her, "What?" she asked, cutting a piece of pancake and eating it.

"Nothing, it's just…" Troy trailed before smiling, "I'm glad I'm getting to see this side of you."

Sharpay blushed at that, "Well…I'm glad someone _gets_ to see this side of me."

The rest of breakfast went by in silence with two teens just enjoying each other's company. Around 11 they both finished and Sharpay put the dishes in the dish washer before heading upstairs to get changed for the day.

She came back down a few minutes later wearing a simply blue jean skirt and light green fitted t-shirt. Troy's eyes swept over her quickly, he really did like her better when she dressed simply.

"So what are we doing today?" Troy asked, following her out of the house.

"We?" Sharpay asked, locking the door, not looking at him.

"Yes, we," Troy said, giving her a boyish grin, "…unless you'd rather have me stalk you again?"

Sharpay laughed, shaking her head at his antics before leading him down to her car, "Well first I go down to the soup kitchen around lunch time to volunteer there," she started, getting in her car, "Then I have a few lessons and then I work on my homework."

"We have a soup kitchen?" Troy asked, he hadn't known that their town had a soup kitchen.

"Well, we don't but a few towns over there's one." She started her car, "It takes about a half hour to get there so I usually leave just about now to make it there by 12."

Troy made an 'o' with his mouth, nodding his head in understanding. Sharpay backed carefully out of her driveway and started down the street before she turned on her music. "I hope you don't mind listening to Wicked," she said as she fiddled with the CD player, playing the first song, "I've been dieing to go see it. I'm thinking I'll go over the summer."

Troy was about to comment on his shared desire to see it when No One Mourns the Wicked blasted through the car.

They drove in silence, listening to, and occasionally singing along with, the CD. Troy was starting to get a little jittery though, they had been driving through what didn't seem to be a very good neighborhood for the last five minutes. He glanced over at Sharpay, she didn't appear too worried, so he didn't say anything. A few minutes later she pulled up in front of what looked like an abandoned fire house. It had a banner across the front labeled 'Soup Kitchen', so Troy knew it must be the place…well duh, they _were _headed to a soup kitchen.

Sharpay quickly got out of her car, waiting for Troy to do the same before locking it and heading inside.

Troy was amazed; there were hundreds of people sitting at rows of fold out tables with a line of more people against the wall in a single file, waiting for their turn to get food from a table in the back.

"Sharpay!" a voice called from the side.

They turned to see a man trying to get out of a side room while carrying three large bags of food with bowls balanced on top.

"Jared!" Sharpay shouted, running over to the man, taking the bowls from him as Troy grabbed two of the bags.

"Thank you Shar," the man said, taking a breath before he noticed Troy, "And…Shar's friend?"

Sharpay laughed, "Jared, this is Troy; he goes to my school and wanted to help out today."

Jared smiled and nodded at this, leading them over to the back table. "The more the merrier," he said setting out the food in the bags, "Always a pleasure to have Shar, and anyone she brings with her, help out."

Troy smiled as he watched Sharpay blush from embarrassment. She ran off to a small pile of white cloth laid out on a chair, grabbing two before heading back. "Here Troy," she said, handing him an apron as she put on hers.

He did the same, taking a place next to her behind the table. "All you have to do is scoop out a spoon full or two of what ever the next person asks for. Simple," she said, demonstrating as an old woman came up asking for some of the Macaroni and Cheese.

Troy quickly mastered dishing out the fruit salad and teamed up with the Soup man next to him to hand out bread while the man scooped up soup into paper bowls for the men and women. A few more volunteers showed up to take over for Troy and Sharpay as they were reassigned to help make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the elderly and children. They had turned it into a small competition to see who could make more…Sharpay won of course; she had been volunteering there and mastered the PB & J along time ago, at least according to her.

They spent three and a half hours at the soup kitchen, which definitely proved the theory 'time flies when you're having fun' because Troy didn't even notice that so much time had passed till Sharpay said it was time to go or else she'd be late for her lessons.

They were walking back to the car when a hand caught Sharpay out of nowhere. She spun quickly, Troy was about to rush at the guy when she started laughing. "Charlie, you scared me," she said, her hand on her chest.

"Sorry bout that luv," the man said with a slight accent that Troy couldn't quite place. "Jus wanted to be seein' hows you was doin'."

"I'm fine Charlie, but I've got to go," she said, "I might be late."

"S'alright," Charlie said, waving her off, "See you next week."

Sharpay laughed, waving to him as she got to the car. She walked around to the driver's side, about to open the door when she noticed Troy staring at her, "What?" she asked getting in the car.

"Nothing," he said shaking his head at her before getting in the car as well.

The ride home was a lot more talkative than the ride there. The music played, but neither was really listening to it as they talked.

After they had been driving for a while, Troy decided to ask, "Shar…" he started, seeing that she had no problem with him calling her by that nickname, "Why do you volunteer so much?"

She glanced over at him, before returning her eyes to the road, "What do you mean Troy?"

"I mean, with school, drama, your soccer practices, karate, piano lessons, and singing lessons…not to mention homework, you'd think you'd have no time." he said.

"Yeah…and?" she asked, still not sure of the question.

"Well, if you didn't volunteer as much as you do, you'd have more time to yourself."

"To do what?" she asked, "Sit in my empty house, taking bets with myself as to who would get home first? My dad or my brother?" she sighed, knowing she was on the verge of being rude, "I think of it as karma."

"Karma?" Troy said about to laugh when he noticed Sharpay was serious.

"Yeah, I mean, not Karma…but something like it," she sighed, not sure of how to explain it. "See, I act like a bitch at school right?"

"Well, not really a bitch," Troy started, feeling bad for ever having thought that Sharpay was capable of being an actual bitch in real life, "More like a…a…"

"A bitch," she said firmly. "Anyway, there's this thing where if you are called something enough times and act a certain way long enough, you start to become that thing…and I don't want to be a _real_ bitch…I guess, volunteering is my way to make sure that I _know_ I'm not really a bitch. Like, I'm so mean in school that I have to make up for it after school…so I volunteer." There was a long pause in the conversation as Troy absorbed her confession, "Not to mention…" she added, "I like it."

The rest of the drive was in silence…but a comfortable silence. Soon Sharpay pulled up to the town's country club near the edge of it. Troy raised an eyebrow in question as to why there were at the country club when Sharpay simply got out of the car and opened the trunk. Troy got out just as she shut the trunk and held up a slightly worn Tennis racket.

Troy nodded in understanding as they both walked into the club. Sharpay flashed her pass to the guard in the front and signed Troy's name as her visitor and they continued on towards the back doors that led to the Tennis courts.

A woman with straight blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail, wearing a standard white Tennis uniform, walked over to them. She greeted Sharpay with a warm hug, nodding to Troy when Sharpay introduced them. Troy sat off by one of the white lawn tables placed near the courts, white umbrella out to keep the sun blocked. It was nearly the end of May, and the weather had been getting warmer lately. School would be over in just about three weeks…wow…they'd be seniors in a few months…

But Troy's thoughts were quickly forgotten when Sharpay and her instructor started to practice. Troy couldn't help but smirk every time Sharpay leaned to reach the ball in time…her skirt for flare up slightly at that…and he couldn't help it if he was a guy…that's just the way he was made…

Though, he had to admit, he was getting tired just watching the match going on between Sharpay and her instructor. They were both running back and forth all over the court, smacking the ball around, just watching the ball go back and forth was making his neck hurt. He glanced down at his watch, they had arrived there a few minutes before four, but it was now nearly five fifteen, and despite working in a food kitchen for the better part of the afternoon, Troy was hungry. Watching Sharpay run, he was sure that she was hungry too.

About ten minutes later Sharpay jogged over to Troy after having a few words with her instructor, which must have been good because she was practically beaming as they walked out of the club and to her car.

"You were great!" Troy exclaimed once they were back in the car and heading of to get something to eat before six when Sharpay had her last lesson for the day. They drove slowly past the local McDonald's, making sure that no one they knew was in there before they headed in. They both got their usual meals, Troy with his two cheeseburgers and a coke, and Sharpay with her big Mac and fry. By the end of the meal they ended up splitting the fry and sharing the coke, which, in their opinion, worked out very well.

Troy took the wheel this time, giving Sharpay some time to relax as she instructed him where to go for the last stop of the day. It was the community theatre where there would hold town meetings and presentations as well as the faculty meeting. They walked into the auditorium precisely at 6 to see a man there waiting there.

Sharpay sighed before walking up to the man to ask if Troy could sit in on the practice. The man agreed as long as she didn't get distracted. So Troy took a seat while the man went about coaching Sharpay through some different emotions and accents. Then he gave her a sheet of paper and told her to memorize the monologue in the five minute break he gave her. Troy sat there with his jaw hanging open. Five minutes to memorize a page of monologue? True, it was more like a column of monologue than a full page, but still…five minutes?

But, since Friday, Sharpay had yet to stop shocking him. She breezed through the monologue, putting emotion behind every word she said. Troy couldn't even tell that she had fumbled a line or two till the acting coach mentioned it in passing, followed by stating that she managed to improv the flubs perfectly. They went through a few more acting exercises before the man finally let Sharpay go.

Troy held the door open for Sharpay as the headed outside. It was already dark out at 7:30 and slightly chilly. They walked quickly to the car and Sharpay took the wheel to head back to her house. When she pulled up to the house her expression fell a little, none of the lights were on which meant that neither Ryan nor her father were home yet. She parked the car and Troy walked her up to the front door.

"Are you going to be alright?" Troy asked, slightly concerned that she'd be alone in the huge house.

"Huh?" She asked, not really having heard what he'd said…she'd been staring into his eyes again. "Oh, yeah. I'll be fine. I've done this before."

"Are you sure?" he asked, "I can always wait with you if you wan…"

"Troy," she said, resting her hand on his arm. He was wearing short sleeves so when her warm hand came in contact with his skin, shocks went up his arm. "I'll be fine," she whispered.

"You sure?" he asked again, leaning forward more towards her, aware that she was doing the same thing, "Cause I can…"

"Yeah?" she whispered. There faces were only inches apart; he could feel her breath on him.

"I can…" he trailed leaning forward, about to close the gap between them when a car alarm went off down the street forcing them to jump apart. They both looked at each other for a moment before looking away embarrassed. "So…um…I'll…see you at school?" he asked. 'Smooth Troy,' he thought to himself, '_real_ smooth…'

"Um…yeah…probably…" she trailed still refusing to look at him, "But um…I'll probably be…you know…"

"Ice Queen?" he asked.

"Yeah," she finished, looking away sadly.

Troy smiled, "Well we still have after play tomorrow right?" he asked, smile growing as he noticed her smile a little.

"We?" she asked teasingly.

"Unless you want me to stalk you again," he repeated from earlier.

"I don't know," Sharpay feigned consideration, "I kinda like the idea of you stalking me." His eyes widened at that, but then he blushed deeper when she started to laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow Troy."

"Yeah…tomorrow…" he agreed as she shut the door before him. He couldn't wait till tomorrow!

A/N – Next chappy...Sharpay makes a decision and Ryan says something that really hurts her.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

School on Monday was torture! It seemed like almost everything that someone said reminded him of a laugh he'd had with Sharpay the day before. He found himself constantly wanting to comment on the joke, but no one but Sharpay would understand it. Every time he saw her he wanted to say hi, wave, smile…do something! But he couldn't, for her sake. She didn't want the school to know her secret personality, and it wasn't his secret to tell.

She went back to her Ice Queen act, but he could swear that when she'd pass him in the hall her eyes would soften and she'd give him the smallest of smiles. He didn't know how she did it every single day, not being able to really smile or laugh or even enjoy herself. She seemed to do that non stop the other day, always laughing or cracking a joke. In all honesty, it was a little scary how talented an actress Sharpay was, people literally parted like the Red Sea whenever she walked past them.

Third period was the hardest one to deal with for Troy. AP English and he sat right next to Sharpay. He had to say one thing though, her acting lessons really paid off, she barely acknowledged his presence, remaining solely focused on being the Ice Queen. He managed to slip a note to her when the bell rang at the end of the class, instructing her how to get to his secret hideout. Gabriella rarely ever went there anymore; she and Taylor ate lunch with the Science Squad to go over their mistakes during the decathlon and preparing some questions to challenge each other with for the next season.

Troy glanced back as he reached the door of the classroom to see Sharpay give him the slightest of nods before continuing to pack her back pack. Troy smiled to himself as he made his way to his hideout. He'd explained to the team that he went there to be alone, and since they were all jocky guys they didn't really understand why…so they left him alone.

Troy had just sat down on the bench by the flowers when he heard the click clack of Sharpay's heels on the steps. "Hey!" he said, jumping up as she turned to face him.

She smiled softly, "Hi," she walked over to where he was standing and plopped down on the bench. "These heels were definitely not made for walking," she muttered, "Someone must have been high on something when they invented them."

"Oh come on," Troy said nudging her slightly, "They can't be that bad."

Sharpay gave him an 'oh really' look before replying, "Then why don't you try wearing them."

Troy laughed, "On second thought, I think I'll take your word for it."

Sharpay laughed at that as well, sighing softly when she finished. Troy could tell that something was up, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said.

"You know, for being an actress that could make an entire school think she's and Ice Queen, you're not very good at lying."

She looked up at him to see him giving her a look and rolled her eyes, "It's just…you don't know what I'd give to be able to come to school in something comfortable for once. I don't know, sweat pants…a t-shirt…sneakers…"

Troy smiled at her, the way she said sneakers was so dreamy that he knew she really detested wearing those heels. "Well, I'd let you wear my sneakers, but your feet are too small and you'd probably fall out of them."

His short sentence had the desired affect, a laugh from Sharpay. She nudged him again, shaking her head at his antics when he nudged her back.

"Hey Troy…" she started, waiting till he looked at her to continue, "I've been thinking a lot and…I think I might no…"

She never got to finish that sentence because the warning bell went off. They'd have to leave now or risk being late.

"Tell me later?" he asked, as they headed down. Sharpay nodded and they headed off their separate ways.

The next time Sharpay saw Troy was during her gym class 7th period. Their regular gym teacher was absent so Coach Bolton was filling in. Basically it was a period of boys shooting hoops and girls sitting on the bleachers gossiping. Troy had walked in near the end of the period to talk to his dad about something when he caught sight of Sharpay sitting near the bottom of the bleachers in the middle. No one was sitting near her and he was pretty sure one of the groups of girls on the bleachers was talking about her. He frowned watching her, she was looking longingly at the boys playing basketball…well not really the boys, but just the game itself…but Troy didn't know that…

He was in the middle of a conversation with is dad when his father suddenly blew the whistle signaling the end of the period and for the boys and girls to go get changed before the actual bell rang. Unfortunately the boys were so into the game that they whistle startled them and the ball rolled away from them…right to where Sharpay was standing off to the side by the mid court line.

Sharpay kneeled to pick the ball up, watching sourly as the boys laughed at the sight…the Ice Queen holding a basketball? What was she going to do with it? Turn it to ice with her frigid glare? One of the boys took a few steps forward making a give it hear motion with his hands for Sharpay to toss the ball to him. Sharpay merely raised an eyebrow, moving the ball to one hand in a waitress position as if to say 'you want _me_ to throw this thing?'

That just earned another round of laughter from the boys, as well as some sneery comments. One boy, who Troy recognized from the JV B-Ball team, had the balls to say "Ohhh, watch out the Ice Queen might break a nail!" Receiving many more laughs from the boys.

Sharpay glared at them, Troy was about to go over there to get them to leave her alone when she moved the ball into both her hands. She looked down at the ball quickly before glancing at the far hoops, just near Troy. She smirked as an idea came to her. She bounced the ball a few times, and Troy could tell that she was making an act of doing so badly, before collecting the ball in her hand and shooting the ball at the basket in a perfect arch. There was a swish, followed by complete silence from the remaining boys. The gym had emptied mostly when the Coach blew the whistle.

Troy's mouth dropped open, as did the boys and his father's at Sharpay's display of skill. Not even half the guys on the Varsity team could have made that basket. Sharpay merely smirked and walked into the locker room.

"Wow…" the coach muttered staring at the closed locker room door.

"Sharpay…" Troy murmured, completely stunned.

His father turned to him, "You know her?" he asked excitedly, "Is she on the girl's team? Does she play? Do you know her number so we can invite her do dinner? I could definitely give her some pointers if she's interested in joining a team. You should consider playing one-on-one with he…"

But Troy zoned it all out…he was still in shock at what Sharpay had just done…

He was still in shock when he saw her at the meeting for play right after school. He'd gotten there early hoping to talk to her about maybe playing some basketball with him but ended up being ambushed by Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, and Ryan. It wasn't until moments before Ms. Darbus started her announcements that Sharpay arrived. Troy immediately knew she was troubled about something; it was just a subtle thing though.

Ms. Darbus introduced the play, starting off with a few minor exercises before starting to call the auditioners for that day. Chad and Gabriella decided to go that day, Taylor wanted to wait till Tuesday, Troy was set for Wednesday, and Ryan wanted to save the best for last and signed up for Thursday. Everyone was fully expecting Sharpay to be the first one called, even Troy, so it was a shock for everyone when someone else was called. So they all just assumed that she was going to end the auditions for the day, show everyone who went how it should be done.

They were right in that aspect, just after Chad had gone (Gabriella had gone second), Ms. Darbus called Sharpay's name.

Sharpay stood slowly, "Um…Ms. Darbus…can I speak with you privately for a minute?"

Ms. Darbus nodded and motioned for Sharpay to come on stage with her. They walked off behind the back stage curtains to talk, leaving all those in the auditorium to wonder and whisper what was going on. A few minutes later, Ms. Darbus reappeared, appearing slightly shocked as Sharpay walked…_off_…the stage?

"It appears…" Ms. Darbus started as if scarcely believing what she was about to say, "That Miss Evans does…not…wish to take part in our End of the Year Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream." There was a slight gasp in the audience, namely from the younger and newer members of the Drama Club who had come to admire the legendary Sharpay Evans. Ms. Darbus continued anyway, "Although I do think she would have made a lovely Helena, I must honor her wishes. We must all hope that she will return from her…sabbatical…next year and rejoin us for our future productions." She stared at the audience, "I…I guess that is all for today…" she started to walk off the stage somewhat unsteadily as if she had been dealt a hard blow. Kelsi immediately rushed on stage to help her while the rest of the group practically ran out the doors in pursuit of Ryan who had gone after his sister.

"Sharpay!" he called, running down the hall towards his sister.

"What Ryan?" she snapped turning to face him as the group caught up with them. Troy could see that she was trying not to get upset about dropping out of play. He knew how hard she had taken not getting the lead last year.

Ryan shook his head, "What the hell?!" he shouted, causing her to jump slightly.

"What?" she asked again, avoiding looking him in the eyes. She hated it when he was mad at her…although now he was border line pissed.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted again, "You don't want to do the play?!"

Sharpay took a deep breath, "No, it's not that it's just…"

"Just what?" he asked, staring at her in horror, "Huh? What?! Can't stand the thought that someone else might get the spotlight? Huh? Is that it?" Sharpay opened her mouth to answer, but Ryan cut her off, "Oh, no, or maybe it's just that your bored? Huh?"

"I'm not!" She shouted, "I just want…"

"The lead? God you're such a frigid bitch!" Taylor remarked suddenly as Sharpay turned to face her.

"Yeah I mean, first you try to sabotage the musical just because you didn't get the lead," Chad added.

"And now you're dropping out?" Gabby asked in horror. After everything Sharpay had put them through, she didn't even really care about the play?

"God!" Ryan shouted again, "Do you ever think about people other than yourself?!" Sharpay stared at him, eyes wide, "I mean, first you drag my ass into this frickin' drama crap so that you won't have to do it alone! Then you make me help you try to cheat for the lead! And now _you're_ dropping out?! You made me give up the golf team to help you out and _now_ you want to quit!" Sharpay opened her mouth to defend herself when Ryan said something she never thought she'd ever hear from him, "God you really are such a cold hearted bitch!"

Sharpay let out a gasp as soon as the words left his mouth. Ryan turned to look at his sister, the tears she had been trying so hard to hold back now running down her face, her mouth hanging open in speechlessness, her eyes wide in horror. Guilt immediately seized him for what he had said, he hadn't meant any of it, but he was just so pissed that she dragged him through all that stuff and now she was just going to drop it all? It wasn't fair.

"Shar…Sharpay I…" he started, reaching out a hand to apologize.

Sharpay took a step back, shaking her head at him, trying to snap herself out of it, trying to piece together her Ice Mask that he unintentionally shattered. "N…no…" she said, in what she hoped was a calm voice, "I…I get it…"

"Shar, I didn't mean…" Ryan started, but she cut him off.

"No…" she tried to be emotionless, but it wasn't working, "You did…" She turned and ran down the hall before the group could see her mask shatter again.

Troy looked at the group before him; no one besides Ryan seemed to regret what they had said. He shook his head before running after Sharpay, not caring what they thought of the action…

He managed to catch up to her as she blindly ran through the parking lot. He grabbed her from behind and spun her to face him, enveloping her in a compassionate hug. She tried to fight her way out of his embrace but he held firm, till she recognized that it was Troy and not Ryan that held her. He led her to a small alcove in the building, a cubbyhole/courtyard if you will, where the janitors would park their cars. He sat her down on the steps that led to the schools kitchen, holding her just as a sob broke out.

He knew that what Ryan had said hurt her more than all the comments she had ever received from all the students in the school. Ryan was her brother, the one who was supposed to know her better than anyone else, the one who did know her better than anyone else. He knew what she was thinking right then and there, if her own brother thought she was a bitch…then she must _really_ be a bitch.

Troy rocked her back and forth, whispering soothing words in her ear until her sobs subsided and she drew only shuddering breaths.

"It's alright," Troy whispered, hugging her extra tightly, "He didn't mean it." he added, "He was just angry."

Sharpay sniffled, "You usually say what you really feel when you're angry," she mumbled, "I'm really a bitch."

Troy shook his head; he made a mental note to kill Ryan later for what he said. Sharpay had worked so hard for a long time to do some good to prove she wasn't a bitch to herself and all it took was a few short words from Ryan to make her doubt all she'd worked for. "No," he said firmly, "You're not."

"Yes, I am," she moaned, "If I wasn't then I wouldn't…"

Troy cut her off, "If you were a bitch, you wouldn't be volunteering at a Nursing Home, or reading stories to sick children, or working at a soup kitchen, or god knows what other places you volunteer at…"

Sharpay laughed slightly at that.

"If you were a bitch, you wouldn't care so much what other people think about you. You wouldn't let their words get to you like you do. You wouldn't let Ryan get to you."

She drew an even breath.

"You wouldn't care about sports or acting or getting hurt. You wouldn't feel bad every time you snap at people. And you wouldn't care about school."

She sat up and wiped away the last of her tears, "You really think so?" she asked weakly.

"I know so," Troy said taking her hand in his as he pulled her up, "Now, come on. Knowing you, you're about to be late for some volunteer work or lesson or something."

Sharpay laughed as she led him to her car, opening his door first to pull a tin foiled tin from the passenger's seat and putting it on the back seat. She got into the driver's seat noticing Troy giving her a look.

"Do I want to know what's in the tin?" he asked jokingly, getting a smile from her.

"If you must know, there are cookies in the tin," she said matter-of-factly pulling out of the parking lot.

"Ah…but cookies for what I wonder?"

"You'll see," she said putting her attention back on the road.

A few short minutes later, they pulled into the Four Season's Daycare Center and Troy immediately knew who the cookies were for. It turned out that Sharpay volunteered there for an hour every Monday, bringing cookies or other baked goods for the children to snack on. She mentioned as they walked in that she had made the cookies yesterday, just after Troy had left, just before she did what was left of her AP History homework.

Troy learned that her time management skills were impeccable. She'd had it all set out, revolving around the plays of course. Everyday (Mon. – Fri.) she would go to play till five, then she'd volunteer somewhere for an hour, till six. Get dinner till six thirty, then head out to a sports lesson from six thirty to seven thirty, and go to another lesson for an hour from 8 to 9. Then from 9 till when ever, she would do her homework, which was bountiful to say the least. His suspicions were confirmed, she _was_ taking mostly AP classes. English, history, math, science, and language were all AP. The only things that weren't challenging were lunch and gym. He was surprised though, to find out that not many of the students who were taking mostly AP classes noticed that Sharpay was in the classes…most just thought that she was put there by accident and was too lazy to transfer out.

He also learned that, besides volunteering at the Nursing home, Children's hospital, soup kitchen, and daycare center, Sharpay also volunteered at the food pantry on Tuesdays, helping to make the food packages that were sent to different families, an orphaninch on Wednesdays, teaching crafts, and the Animal shelter on Thursdays, helping to groom and train the dogs. He discovered too that she didn't just take lessons in piano, singing, and acting, but also on ballet, tap, hip hop, and gymnastics…though he had to admit that he was most excited to see Sharpay perform some gymnastics…guys just wondered what positions a woman's body could…

He mentally smacked himself for even starting that thought! It wasn't very gentlemanly and he really didn't want to offend Sharpay, especially since she _was_ really nice in reality.

They stayed at the daycare center till around 6:10 when Sharpay handed him a sandwich to eat as they headed back to the athletic center for her next lesson…one which she had hinted to Troy, he might find _very_ interesting.

And interested he was when he realized that Sharpay could actually play basketball as well as shoot hoops. She had a coach meet her at the athletic centers on Mondays to work on her techniques, free throws, defenses. Her coach was fine by Troy, once Sharpay introduced him as the star of the high school's basketball team and the captain, he even gave Troy some pointers and let them play one on one against each other and just have fun. It turned out that the coach had been encouraging Sharpay to find someone to go one-on-one against; he said that you can't get better by yourself, you always need help.

The last event of the day was Sharpay's tap dancing lesson. This time, however, Troy wasn't permitted to sit and watch Sharpay perform, it was an actual class with other girls as well. But he was perfectly content to sit in the waiting room for Sharpay to finish. It gave him some time to finish up the last of his homework. An hour later, Sharpay emerged red faced, and slightly sweaty, but beautiful nonetheless.

"Ready to go?" he asked, picking up her duffle bag and carrying it for her.

"Yup," she said, giving him an appreciative smile as they headed off.

A/N – So…I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for the next chapter. I'm thinking maybe Troy finds out why Sharpay decided to quit play, but the chapter after it is when Troy finds out what exactly happened while he was away at Basketball camp. But, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update though, I have an economics paper due tomorrow along with an essay about Nathanial Hawthorne and a calculus exam to study for. But I'll try to update soon! 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

A/N – Yay! Two essays out of the way! I just got back from a class which let out early…so I had time to write this next chappy since I don't play to study or write my third essay till tomorrow…so here it is!

For once in his life, Troy was actually happy that Basketball season was over. The team was taking the last month of school really easy, making up for practice time with talking to girls time. That meant that no one would be in the gym come free period…which meant that Troy and Sharpay could play some one on one without anyone seeing them.

Of course, Sharpay made sure to lock all the doors that led to the gym, just to be safe. Although, she doubted anyone would come to the gym to look for her…the only person who would was Ryan…and he was never around anyway. But Troy was another story; everyone would be looking for him. He had assured her, however, that no one looked for him fourth period, it was his designated time to himself…or at least that's what the team called it.

So that left them with time almost everyday to hang out, giving Sharpay a break from being the 24/7 Ice Queen. It hadn't been so bad, Sharpay had mentioned once, she had Ryan so she was able to be Ice Queen during school…but now…it was getting a little harder with no one to support her.

Troy still thought that she should go public with her actual personality, but he respected her wishes, opting instead to give her a break for forty minutes.

They were currently in the middle of their third one on one five point game, Troy had won the first two, when Troy decided to add a little more conversation…hoping to throw off Sharpay who was currently up by a basket.

"You know…" he started, managing to steal the ball, "That was an amazing shot you took, I can't believe you made it…"

Sharpay blocked his next shot, taking the ball out for a lay up, "Neither can I…" she tried to make a shot but Troy stole the ball again and made a basket, tying the game 3-3, "I was just really sick of people saying that I couldn't do it…"

Troy nodded, completely understanding where she was coming from, "You really should have tried out for the teams…"

She blocked his next shot. "Well, I'm thinking about going out for the teams…"

"Really?" he asked, completely coming to a stand still.

Sharpay used this to her advantage, stealing the ball and making a shot, 4-3, "Well, there aren't that many acting scholarships out there…I have a better chance at a good school with an athletic scholarship…"

Troy shook his head, getting back into the game, "But couldn't your dad just pay for it?"

"But I don't want him to," she stated, trying to block him, but missed, 4-4, "I don't want people to think that I didn't work to get into a good school."

Troy thought on this, getting distracted just a little, allowing Sharpay to steal the ball. He ran behind her, blocking her.

But she had yet to stop amazing him as she used his own technique against him. She faked right, broke left, and scored! "Yes!" She shouted, "Who's the master?!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said, jogging to collect the ball.

Sharpay stopped for a moment, before jumping up and down, "I just beat Troy Bolton!"

"Uh huh," Troy said, smiling at her antics, "And let's see…" he pretended to think, "I've beaten you how many times? Twice, was it?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes, walking to her duffel bag, about to pick up her towel when the sounds of a single person clapping reached her. Sharpay's eyes widened in fear at the thought that someone would know about her…but she was relieved to see it was only Coach Bolton standing there. 'Of course,' she thought, mentally smacking herself, 'He would have a key to get in.'

"Mr. Bolton!" Sharpay exclaimed, glancing quickly over to Troy as his father walked over to them. "How are you sir?"

"I'm good," he replied politely, "Sharpay? Is it?" Sharpay nodded, "Well, Sharpay I just wanted to comment on your excellent game."

Sharpay blushed at that while Troy whined 'dad', "Thank you Mr. Bolton."

"Please," he said, "Call me Coach."

"Thank you Coach," she replied as Troy rolled his eyes.

"You know," he continued, "Not many girls, even on the girls' basketball team, could hold their own against Troy here, let alone beat him."

"Dad!" Troy whined again, embarrassedly.

"Are you considering joining the girl's team?" he asked her, she nodded, "If you ever need some pointers, just come to my office." He smiled gently at the girl, "You know what? You should come to dinner one day at our house."

"Dad!" Troy exclaimed.

"I'm sure Troy wouldn't have a problem playing some one on one with you, you know, entertaining such a beautiful young woman like yourself." He laughed.

"Dad!" he shouted, utterly horrified and blushing a shade of red formally unknown to mankind.

Coach Bolton laughed, "I'm just joking with you son." He turned back to Sharpay, "Well, it was nice to meet you Sharpay…"

"Evans, coach," she answered.

"Evans?" he asked, studying her features, "Richard's daughter?" she nodded, an empathetic look found its way onto Coach's face, "I'm sorry…about your mother."

Sharpay looked away, "It's alright, it was a long time ago."

Troy looked between the two with a look of complete confusion plastered on his face. What were they talking about? What happened to her mom?

Coach Bolton offered a sad smile before walking towards his office, "Come see me when your little practice is over!" he called to Troy over his shoulder.

Troy turned back to Sharpay to see her pick up her duffel bag, she muttered a quick, "I don't feel like practicing much anymore," before quickly running off towards the rest rooms attached to the gym to change.

Troy was about to ask her if she was alright, but she was already in the restroom. He dropped his head, placing the basketball on the rack before heading in to talk to his father.

He knocked on the door, hearing a 'Come In' before entering. Coach Bolton looked up from his roster, smiling and leaning back upon seeing his son stand before him. "That's some girl you've got there son," he said, grinning broadly. Any girl who could play sports was a winner in his book. "Much better than that Arabella girl you had."

"Gabriella," Troy corrected automatically.

"Whatever," he replied, "She seems to have a good head on her shoulders, not up on stage…"

"Dad, she president of the Drama club," Troy added.

"Oh…" he said thinking it over, before tossing the thought aside, "But at least she can play, right?"

Troy looked up at his grinning father before nodding slightly, "Dad what happened to Sharpay's mom?" he asked suddenly.

His father's expression morphed into one that was a mixture of confusion…then horror, "You…you mean we never told you?" he asked, Troy shook his head no, "Not even when you got back from camp?" Again, Troy shook his head, "I don't believe it…" his dad muttered in disbelief.

"What happened?" Troy asked, desperately.

"I just…" his father trailed looking at him, "I thought we'd told you…You and Sharpay were nearly joined at the hip that year…"

"What?" Troy asked.

"You and the little Evan's girl…you were nearly inseparable…ever since kindergarten, you always hung out with each other…she never told you?"

Troy shook his head...he hung out with Sharpay? He thought back before realizing that he had hung out with her…they'd been best friends since they started school together. That summer, third grade, was their first summer apart. How could he have forgotten that?

He looked up when his father let out a deep breath and shook his head, "A few weeks after you went to camp…Sharpay's mother was in a car accident…"

"What?!" Troy exclaimed, how the hell could his parents have forgotten to tell him that? "Is she ok?"

His father fixed him with a hard look, "She died on impact."

Troy's eyes widened in horror. How could he have not noticed that something was wrong with Sharpay when he got back from basketball camp? How could he have not heard that her mother had died? How could he have let everyone be so mean to her?

"Son?" Coach said, trying to get Troy's attention. Troy looked up unseeing at his father, completely in shock.

"Is…was Sharpay ok?" he managed to ask after a moment.

"She was pretty shook up," he father said, recalling the funeral. He had never seen the little girl so heartbroken, so sad… "The funeral was moving, Sharpay and Ryan sang her favorite song…Richard sent her and her brother off to drama camp a few days later…to try to get their minds off it."

Troy let out a disbelieving laugh, well that explained why he didn't notice…that was when Sharpay started acting…started being the Ice Queen.

"Are…are you alright son?" Coach asked, noticing his son's silence.

"Huh?" Troy asked looking up, "Yeah…" he nodded, "I just…it's just…"

Coach nodded, understanding, "It happened along time ago Troy."

Troy nodded, heading out of the office and back into the gym. He was surprised to see Sharpay still there, sitting on the bleachers, putting her heels on.

"Hey," she said, smiling softly when she saw him. He sat down next to her, letting her see the look on his face, "What's wrong?"

Troy shook his head, not looking at her. She reached out and gently tiled his head towards her, "What's wrong?" she repeated, forcing him to look her in the eye.

"I…you…" He shook his head slightly, before looking her in the eye again, "Your mom died?"

Sharpay looked at him, an unreadable expression on her face. Inside, she was a mixture of feelings, the two most prominent being hurt and happiness. She was so hurt that he didn't notice until now that her mother was gone, so hurt that he hadn't noticed…but she was happy too because she knew that Troy wouldn't have acted the way he did unless he truly didn't know that something had happened. And how was he supposed to find out? Sharpay and Ryan hadn't told him, no one mentioned it, he didn't go over her house anymore, and even his own parents hadn't told him. She knew that no one had ever told him about her mom until now…so she couldn't blame him for the way he acted when he didn't know and no one told him.

"Yeah," she said softly, looking down to see that Troy had unconsciously intertwined their fingers, "A few years ago…"

A moment later would find Sharpay trapped in a tight hug by none other than Troy Bolton. She hugged him back, knowing that he needed the hug more than her.

"I'm so sorry," she heard him whisper into her hair; "I'm a horrible friend."

Sharpay shook her head, pulling back slightly, "No, you're not."

"But I didn't even notice…" he started when Sharpay cut him off.

"And no one told you…I don't blame you." She smiled softly, showing him that she had forgiven him for so many years of missed friendship and strained words.

He felt a small smile make its way onto his face as well. He couldn't believe what an amazing girl was sitting across from him. Slowly…ever so slowly…he started to lean in as she did the same. Their lips were a hair's breath away from touching when…the warning bell went off forcing to jump apart, both red faced.

The stood up quickly and tried to walk past each other towards a different gym door, but ended up almost walking into each other. They each took a step back, laughing embarrassedly before Troy held out his arms letting her step past him. Once she did, he ran in the opposite direction to get to class on time.

One lone figure stood smiling in the doorway of his office, having just witnessed the almost-kiss. He laughed to himself as he stepped into the gym, moving to unlock the rest of the doors for the other students who would arrive any moment…

Sharpay had told Ms. Darbus that morning that, while she herself would not be trying out for the EYP, she would be there for the tryouts everyday to show her support of the theatre. So there she was, Tuesday after school, sitting in the auditorium with her arms crossed waiting for the auditions to finish. Troy sat on the opposite end of the auditorium with Ryan and the gang. They had all come to support Taylor since it was her first time auditioning for anything.

Ryan had tried to apologize to Sharpay during the beginning of the auditions, but she got up and moved as far away from him as humanly possible, while still remaining in the auditorium. Taylor had gone near the middle and done a spectacular monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Not that those trying out had to do a monologue from it, it was just that Taylor didn't really know what Ms. Darbus would be looking for and so she played it safe and did a great rendition of Titania. It just so happened that Chad had done a monologue from Kind Leer…hmmm…a king and a queen…coincidence? I think not.

They stayed to cheer on the newbies as well, each leaving quickly after the auditions were over. Troy managed to get away from the group, claiming that he needed to go to his locker…

It wasn't a lie…exactly…he did stop at _a_ locker…just not his…unless his was bright pink with a star that read Sharpay stuck to it. Sharpay was waiting there for him…she actually did have to go to her locker, to pick up two more of her AP books that she didn't want the others to see. It sucked…her AP classes, she had said, while other kids would go to the library to work on their extra bit of work, Sharpay couldn't because the Ice Queen doesn't do libraries.

That meant that she was stuck doing all her homework at home. She had said that the AP Chem. work (A/N – I wrote AP Bio in a previous chapter by accident, I'll fix it when I finish the fic) was the worst to do. The teacher expected everyone in the class to be as smart and quick as Taylor and Gabriella…even though they paired up to get the work done in half the time. Sharpay was good in that class, she had to be to keep her A average. But it wasn't like Gabriella and Taylor noticed…so Sharpay didn't care that much. After all, she didn't want to be in the spotlight for academics, she was much more content to do her own corrections on her paper than pointing them out to the teacher ever chance she got.

Though, she had to admit, today's workload wasn't as bad as it could have been. After she volunteered at the Food Pantry, she just had another soccer lesson, and a ballet lesson. This one, Troy would be able to watch…from a distance. There wasn't a waiting room like with the tap studio; it was just a large room in between a convenience store and a dress shop, so Troy would be able to watch Sharpay through the window that ran along the front of the building.

When Troy got home that evening, he had to admit to himself that the food pantry wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He was given a list of food to put in a bag…nothing overly complicated. He thought he'd end up stocking miles of shelves and handing bags to people in rags…but that wasn't the case. He even had a few laughs when a bag of flour had fallen off the top shelf, ripping open as it hit the floor, completely covering him and Sharpay. They had fallen to the ground laughing hysterically when a timid boy who had placed the bag so precariously on the edge of the shelf rushed into to sweep up the mess.

Honestly, he was starting to see why Sharpay liked to volunteer so much…there was never a dull moment and always something to do…he was actually interested in what they would be doing the next day.

A/N – So…I switched the two chapters I was going to write and added an extra little one. So the next one is going to be Troy's audition…which end up being more than Sharpay bargained for (how you may wonder? you'll have to wait and find out) followed by the reasons why Sharpay quit…

Kudos to actingalexis13 for giving me an idea. And to answer a question by XBeautifulbabe405X, I'm planning to get them together in about three to four chapters…I can't wait to write them :)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Sharpay glanced up from her paper, looking at the different pair of people working ferociously trying to finish up before the other teams. She sighed quietly, she was by herself…that's what she was used to being in an odd numbered class and hated by the students. But she was perfectly content to work on the Chem questions by herself. That way no one would know if she was doing it well or not. Her attention was drawn away from question five, the last question on the paper by Gabriella and Taylor sprinting to the front of the class, practically throwing their paper down on the teacher's desk. They were grinning from ear to ear as they headed back to their seats; Sharpay rolled her eyes at them before returning her attention to her own paper.

She ended up handing it in around the time everyone else did. Now all that was left to do was to wait for Mrs. Manson (A/N - I don't know her actual name in the movie.) to grade them in order, and they would find out who won the extra credit for the test tomorrow. She was sitting at her desk, one hand resting on her swollen stomach, the other holding a red marker as she went through the various papers. Her eyebrows scrunched in confusion as she began to flip through the papers, making the students very nervous. She stopped, carefully reading one, looking at her answer sheet, before smiling gently and laying it aside. She picked up her red maker once more and drew a small X on every other paper but the one she set aside.

The faces of just about everyone in the class fell as Mrs. Manson put down her marker and stood, picking up a piece of chalk to write something on the board. It was the fourth problem they had done. She turned back to the class, "I was very shocked to see that only one of you caught my trick," she said with a slight laugh, "This," she pointed to one part of the equation, "Is wrong…it should be this…" she made the correction and Gabriella and Taylor's faces fell even more, they had thought that they were the ones who got it right. "The equation can be balanced but it would lead to an unstable reaction, I'm quite shocked," she mentioned turning around to face the class, "that no one really caught that." She glanced around, not about to say who had gotten it correct. The bell rang and the students filed out quickly, each ready to study twice as hard to not make that mistake on the test.

Sharpay gathered her books, looking up at Mrs. Manson as she left. The woman smiled softly at her. Sharpay shook her head of foolish thoughts that she might have gotten a question right that Gabriella and Taylor had not…but she wasn't _that_ good in Chemistry…

The rest of the day went by relatively fast for Sharpay, she met Troy at his secret hideout to help him run his lines for his audition that afternoon. He'd asked her if she would be there, everyone else had something to do. Taylor and Gabby couldn't make it, they decided to hold an emergency study session for the Chemistry test and Chad and the guys, including Ryan, were heading over to Jason's place to watch a recording of the championship game that he'd edited to look awesome!

And that was how Sharpay ended up in the auditorium…not that she wouldn't have been there anyway. She watched as all the students went, she was really proud, there were a lot more people trying out for Drama…she'd have to thank Troy for that one later. She smiled as Troy's name was called, looking around she noticed that everyone else had left, with only her, Ms. Darbus, and Troy remaining in the auditorium.

Troy frowned as he made his way on stage, he was a little nervous, truth be told, to audition on his own. Obviously, Ms. Darbus and Sharpay could tell since he kept stuttering over his lines and breaking character. One he completely lost his place he groaned and walked off stage, asking Ms. Darbus for a minute.

Sharpay let out a breath before getting up to go get Troy to relax. She pushed back the back stage curtains, only to see Troy pacing back and forth. "What was that?" she asked, laughing to herself as he spun to face her, almost loosing his balance.

"I…I'm just…" he trailed unable to tell her that he was…

"Nervous?" she asked, he nodded, "Don't be. You were great in the musical and you know all your lines by heart. Just take a breath and get out there."

He sighed, "I'm just…I haven't done this by myself before…" he looked past her to the stage, "It'd be great if…" His eyes widened as a smile made its way to his face. "If you go on stage too!"

"What?" she asked, "You want me to audition? Troy I already said I wasn…"

"No, not audition," he said, "Just sit on the stage, next to me. That's all. All you have to do is just say 'What Doug?' when I say, 'You know something Amy?'. That's it, that's all you have to do, just sit there." He looked at her, seeing indecision on her face, "Please?" he begged, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.

She groaned, "Damn you and your puppy dog look," she said before leading the way on stage.

He smiled, following after her. He quickly explained to Ms. Darbus that Sharpay was going to help him focus his attention before he stated.

"You know something Amy?" Troy said, pretending to be thinking of something.

"What Doug?" she asked, pretending that she was doing something important.

"It seems like every person I know is trying to be perfect." Troy said, getting up from his sitting position to pace the stage. "They're all working out to get that perfect body, shopping to find those perfect clothes, saving money to buy that perfect car, all this while trying to maintain straight "A's" so they can get into the perfect college. Then we get to college...and how many years do we have there?...Yeah, another four years to make tops in our class, while balancing sports, activities, and part time jobs to try to have that perfect resume for our applications. I guess you're wondering why we need a perfect resume? Well, let me tell you. So you can get that perfect job, make lots of money, and be successful. Oh and then there's dating...we can't leave that out. Going out with the right person gets you into all the right parties, not to mention improving your chances for being nominated for Prom royalty or something like that. It can make or break your high school experience. I mean even some of the girls at this school are perfect enough to be Runway Models, you know the ones, they suck in their cheeks and prance down the runway with their "I disdain you little people" look on their faces. The other night, while I was up at 11 p.m. finishing my homework, 'because I'd just gotten home from work after basketball practice,' I got so frustrated that I looked up the word 'perfect' in the dictionary. You know something, it's ironic, that we're all striving for an idea that comes somewhere between 'penguin' and 'pinball'. Doesn't that strike you as being just a little stupid? I mean, life is just too precious to waist. I'm ready to have some fun!" he turned to face Sharpay who was just staring at him like he'd lost his mind, "Well? You just gonna sit there? Give me your opinion on the matter…and be perfectly honest." He then turned to Ms. Darbus, "And scene."

Ms. Darbus stood up to clap, praising him on a job well done and was still standing as Troy and Sharpay made their way out of the auditorium. She then fell back into her seat, a grin like a Cheshire cat plastered on her face as she started to make out the cast list. She had had to cancel tryouts for the next day, rescheduling them for that morning during free period. So she would be able to get the cast list up a day early, which means that they could start rehearsing a day earlier. She shivered to herself as she looked at the amazing cast she had picked out before picking up the list and leaving the room…

Troy had an interesting afternoon with Sharpay. She took him to an orphaninch and had him help her teach the kids how to make bird feeders out of pinecones, peanut butter, and bird seed. It was…interesting to say the least…two of the kids got into a fight which led to a massive peanut butter fight with the occasional bird seed bomb flying into the mix.

The afternoon was made all the better when Troy watched Sharpay try to play tennis while fending off the birds that were trying to get to some of the bird seed still stuck in her hair. Troy refused to let her live that down, taking a picture of it with his camera phone for later day blackmailing purposes…not that he thought he'd ever have to black mail her, but it was good to have nonetheless.

Her dance class that evening was something Troy didn't really expect. Usually when dancing was involved, it was the classics, Ballet, Tap, and Jazz…but Sharpay had mixed it up a little, opting for a hip hop class instead. Troy wasn't allowed to watch that actual class either, but he had a great time listening to the different music that Sharpay was dancing to. He loved hip hop as well, and Sharpay even offered to teach him some moves once summer started and she had more time.

He learned that Sharpay hadn't always volunteered as much as she did now. In the beginning of high school she had only volunteered at one of her places one time a week, but now that Ryan was never home, she volunteered at each of the places once a week. She said it helped her keep her mind off being the Ice Queen, off being alone, basically off anything that was bothering her. She'd laughed and said that this way; she didn't have time to think of anything else.

Sharpay still hadn't gotten _all_ the birdseed out of her hair when she walked into school the next day. She thought that might have been why everyone was staring at her…much like they did when they discovered she had not taken part in the tryouts for play. She ran a quick hand through her hair, the bird seed wasn't visible, so she really didn't know why everyone was staring at her. She went to her locker, putting her usually stuff in there when a group of people standing by the call back list caught her attention. Ms. Darbus was there as well, which was weird, the call back list wasn't supposed to be up until tomorrow.

Sharpay slammed her locker before walking quickly over to the crowd; they parted like they always did, even though she wasn't going to look at the list…until a familiar name caught her attention.

"WHAT!?!"

A/N – I know this chappy was a little short, but I didn't want to give away too much in one chapter. So…what name did Sharpay see on the call back list? Though, I bet you can guess. Lol. I might actually manage another chapter today, half way done with my last essay!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"WHAT!?!" The shriek of Sharpay echoed through the hall. She ran to the list, checking to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

**Oberon:** _Chad Dansforth_

**Titania:** _Taylor McKessie_

**Puck:** _Dutch Whitlock_

**Bottom:** _Zeke Baylor_

**Theseus:**_ Jason Cross_

**Hippolyta: **_Kelsi Nielsen_

**Lysander:** _Ryan Evans_

**Hermia:** _Gabriella Montez_

**Demetrius:** _Troy Bolton_

**Helena:** _Sharpay Evans_

(A/N – Dutch - the skater cello dude)

Sharpay eyes widened as she saw her name posted on the call back sheet. She turned abruptly to see Ms. Darbus smiling ear to ear at her.

"Ms. Darbus!" She shouted, walking quickly up to her. "I think there's been some sort of a mistake! I didn't audition!"

Ms. Darbus' grin grew, if possible, "Why, I do believe you did Miss Evans." Sharpay gave her a disbelieving look, one that was a mix of 'are you crazy?' and 'are you senile?'. "You were up on stage during the set audition time correct?" Sharpay nodded, unable to speak, "And you did participate in a monologue did you not?" Sharpay nodded again, "You did speak during that time correct, lines from a script?" Sharpay nodded a third time. "Then, as the rules suggest, you did audition." Sharpay's expression fell, "And I must say, I am happy you did, I could not have picked a better Helena if the actual person was here with us now. I shall see you at the meeting today." And with that, she turned and walked away.

Sharpay stood there in shock, glancing at the students staring at her. She couldn't cry like she wanted to, so she went with the next best thing…anger.

"ERGGG!" she groaned, before turning on the students, "What are you all looking at?!" She screamed, "Vamoose!"

As soon as the words left her mouth the students went scrambling away from her. She glared at everyone she could as she stalked towards the chorus room where she knew she could use the testing room to vent…it was sound proof. As soon as she made it inside the chorus room the door flew open once again as Troy made his way after her. He had been just coming in from down the hall where Chad congratulated him on getting Demetrius, when he saw Sharpay rush into the room, so he followed her knowing that if he didn't, no one else would.

He managed to catch the door to the sound proof room just before it shut. He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him as he did so. The room was small, but not very cramped, giving them each enough space to breathe.

Sharpay slumped down on the bench next to an old keyboard as Troy turned to face her. "Sharpay what's wrong?"

She looked up at him shaking her head, "I was on the call back sheet."

"But how?" Troy asked, "You didn't audition."

Sharpay laughed bitterly, "Darbus counted me saying 'What Doug?' as an audition. According to her I was on stage, during an audition, and I said a line. Now I have the part of Helena!"

"Hey, hey," Troy said, kneeling before her, "It'll be okay, I mean you've done the plays before right? It shouldn't be that hard. And if you're worried about the lines I could always help yo…"

"It's not the lines," she said cutting him off, "I know all Helena's lines."

"What?" Troy asked, he definitely didn't know that.

"I was in a summer production of A Midsummer Night's Dream about a year ago. Ms. Darbus saw it."

Troy nodded, realizing something, "So that's how you knew we'd be doing that play."

Sharpay nodded, "I recognized the scenery."

"Well…" Troy started, "If it isn't the lines you're worried about, is it school? Do you need help with homework, cause I'll…"

Sharpay stood angrily, "It isn't school Troy!" she shouted, pacing slightly, "I don't have a problem doing the play…I just don't want to!"

"Why?" he asked, realizing he never quite got an actual answer from her.

"Because I want to do other things!" She shouted, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I wanted to join the sports teams here but I couldn't because all their practices fall on days and times when there'd be play and next year is the last chance I get to try out and get a scholarship!"

Troy watched her pace, knowing that there was more to what she was saying. He was right, because suddenly she turned on him.

"You were following me on Saturday right?" she asked, he nodded, "Then you know about Jason?"

"The boy with…"

"Cancer," she answered as he nodded again. "It hit me hard, what was happening to him. And I started thinking while I drove back…Jason wasn't responding to medicine. What's to stop one of the other children from not reacting? What's to stop something worse happening to them? What if something does happen to them and I could only be there for an hour or two to read a chapter and not a story? I started thinking that if I wasn't in play, I'd have more time to be there with the kids and to read to them and have fun with them and…there's just so much more I could do for them if I wasn't always stuck at play!"

Troy was speechless; he had no idea that what was happening with that Jason kid had struck such a nerve in her. She really loved those kids; she really wanted to help them, to help anyone.

He felt like shit. Here he was, the B-Ball king. The only thing he did with his time was play basketball and do some homework when he could be out there everyday like Sharpay and make a difference. She was balancing school, with lessons, sports lessons, play, and volunteering. And next year, she'd probably be adding actual sports to the list.

"What could you have done now Pay?" He asked, liking the new nickname better than Shar. Ryan called her Shar, and he felt like that was their thing, Pay was now his special name for her. "School's almost over, sports _are_ over. Even if you didn't do the EYP you couldn't have done any sports."

"I could have volunteered longer," she muttered.

"You can always do that on the weekend," he added. "And even with sports, you could make it work and not have to give up anything. I did it with Basketball."

"But you're the captain Troy," she said, "You're good enough to miss a few practices."

"But as captain, I'm not supposed to," he said smiling a little, getting a smile out of her. "And besides, if you just join a team, they don't care if you miss a practice or two, if you're good they only want you there for the game."

"I guess…" she trailed thinking it over. She was the Ice Queen so it wasn't like her teammates would care much if she wasn't there.

"Besides…" Troy started, "I kinda want to be you to be my Helena."

Sharpay looked up at him. 'That's right,' she thought to herself, 'He got the part of Demetrius…and he and Helena end up together…' She shook her head free of thoughts that that could have happened in real life. He was Troy, the Basketball King, going with Gabriella, the whiz kid golden child, why would he want Sharpay the acting Ice Queen. 'Though…every Queen needs her King…' she thought before mentally smacking herself. She really needed to stop thinking like that.

"Come on Pay, please?" he begged.

She sighed, he was right, there weren't any sports this time of the year, and school was ending in about three weeks…

"Alright…" she agreed, through begrudgingly.

But it wasn't so bad, especially not after Troy enveloped her in a hug just as the warning bell went off and they had to head to homeroom.

After that little incident involving the cast list, Sharpay's day had gone a lot smoother. It turned out that she had in fact gotten the extra credit in Chemistry. Though she had done the problem entirely wrong, she was the only one to catch the teachers trick, which helped bring her grade up from an 87 to a 90, and A-, which she was perfectly happy with. She wasn't the one to grub for grades like certain other girls in the class…who shall remain nameless.

AP English was a riot, the teacher was absent and they had an awesome sub who 'lost' the work for the day and settled them with watching a video of The Grapes of Wrath, which they were currently reading. But it was so worth going to that class, the sub put the video on mute and let the kids make up their own lines to the movie.

Free period had Troy and Sharpay playing one on one in the gym. Coach Bolton had been there in the beginning, he was locking the doors for them when they arrived before leaving them to their own. Troy beat Sharpay in all three games, but the second one had been a close one. She still maintained that the only reason he won that round was because he had tried to block her and hit her tickle spot…which Troy remembered for later use. Coach Bolton came out a few minutes before the bell to invite Sharpay to dinner the next day, on Friday. Sharpay said she'd have to call 'work' to see if she could leave a little earlier for the five o' clock dinner. There was no play meeting the next day, because it had been rescheduled for Thursday, since Ms. Darbus couldn't make it Friday. So, Sharpay would be going to the Nursing home right after school, and he was sure she'd be allowed to leave by five.

And the EYP meeting ended much earlier than even Sharpay had expected. Ms. Darbus handed out the scripts and schedules, along with a list of props that would be helpful if anyone had to give up, as well as the days that she wanted certain scenes memorized by. And that was pretty much it.

Sharpay and Troy were free to go by four, but Troy was cornered by his friends who wanted to hang out with him on Friday. They said that they had barely seen him for the last week; they wanted to make sure that his dad wasn't killing him with B-Ball. Troy used all his will to keep his laugh on the inside. They thought he'd been practicing with his dad for the last week.

But Troy still had to thank the powers that be that none of them had gone to his house after play to liberate him. He could almost picture their reactions if they learned he hadn't even been home till at least nine every night.

He glanced over at Sharpay who was at her locker, sneaking her AP History and Latin books into her back pack. She gave him a slight nod, telling him later that it was fine with her if he wanted to hang with his friends; she understood that spending so much time with her must be tedious.

But that was the thing…he _did_ want to spend time with her, much more with her than his friends. He could almost guess what he'd be stuck doing the next day, sitting at someone's house doing nothing till he had to leave for dinner.

The animal shelter was great! By the end of their time there, Troy considered himself a master at bathing cats without getting scratched too badly. The pointers that Sharpay had given him just before she went to help Kim, the manager, bathed the dogs came in very helpful. He survived with only a few minor scratches on his arms and one small one on the back of his hand.

But he didn't let that get in the way of her Basketball practice. Her couch said he definitely saw a big improvement from the last time he'd seen her play. He was especially thrilled with her fake right, break left, technique, which she credited to Troy.

Then it came time to the activity that Troy had been looking forward to all week…Gymnastics. He wasn't allowed to go into the actual gym, it was a class, but the door that led to the gym from the waiting room was always left open, so he was able to watch her most of the time. He did look away only a few times when he thought Sharpay was about to fall…or when she got into really, really interesting positions…

Troy had to swallow his blush when Sharpay walked out of the gym in her gymnastics suit to go get changed. She was wearing what looked like a dark blue one piece bathing suit with long black sleeves. He was able to look at her fully when she came back out dressed in red sweatpants with East High running down the pant leg, and a white t-shirt that said 'Girly Girl' in red letters printed across it.

Troy took her duffle bag in one hand and held the door open for her, taking her hand with his other once they were outside. He glanced down at Sharpay as they headed to the parking lot, unable to tell if she was actually blushing like he thought she was in the dim lights.

A/N – So…real reason why Sharpay quit play…also kinda explains why Ryan's words hurt her more…kinda. Next chapter might be a little short; it'll basically be Troy hanging out with the guys and Dinner at the Bolton's with Sharpay. Also at dinner, Troy's parents surprise him with a gift…wonder what it could be? Hmmm…


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Troy had been correct in his previous assumption the day before. The whole gang, Gabriella, Taylor, Chad, Ryan, Zeke, Jason, Kelsi, and him were all sitting in Chad's basement doing pretty much…nothing…

They had just finished watching Air Bud…as if it were the prefect combination of sports and cuteness. Troy rolled his eyes, he was getting antsy. The past week he'd always been doing something with Sharpay…to sit there and do nothing felt…well…like a waste of time.

The movie had ended nearly fifteen minutes ago and everyone was sitting around talking about sports and school and play and stuff…

"Let's go do something!" Troy shouted suddenly, stunning the room into silence.

Chad looked around at the group before looking at Troy, "Like what dude?"

"I don't know," Troy said shrugging, "Anything…we could always get a head start on that volunteer stuff the guidance councilors are always bugging us to get down for college and stuff…"

Zeke laughed at that, while Jason replied, "Troy, man, we don't even have to start that stuff till we're seniors."

"Next year," Troy said, trying to get through to them.

"Yeah, so we have next year to do it," Zeke answered.

Troy shook his head, there would be no getting through to his teammates who's whole idea of volunteer meant going to practice a half hour earlier. He was about to ask the girls what they thought when Gabriella spoke.

"Besides Troy," Gabriella said, looking up at him, "With the amount of work Taylor and I have, we really don't have time."

Troy stared at her incredulously. She turned to continue her chat with Taylor as Troy continued to stare. They didn't have time?

"Hey Taylor?" Troy asked, wanting to make sure he wasn't jumping to conclusions. "I know you and Gabby have AP Chem. together, and Gabby has AP Spanish…" He trailed for a moment, thinking for the first time how stupid it was that Gabriella would be getting AP credit for a language she could already speak, before coming right back, "What other AP class are you taking?"

"AP Pre Calc," Taylor answered.

'Math,' Troy thought to himself, "Is that it?" he asked, "Just Chemistry and Calc?"

"Uh huh," Taylor said nodding, "And your point?"

"Nothing," he said shaking his head. He knew neither Gabriella nor Taylor had a job since they counted school a full time job. Neither did Chad, because he considered…well…Chad was just lazy…(A/N – sorry Chad fans :( it fit.)

How could they not have time to go out and help someone? Sharpay had twice as much stuff on her plate and she still managed to get out and do something!

Troy was getting angry; here they were, doing nothing! They had just spent nearly two hours watching a stupid movie about a dog that could play basketball! Those two hours could have been spent somewhere else…at cleaning the park…or visiting sick people at the hospital…or even fundraising!

He shook his head about to comment on their waste of time when Chad's mother called from up the stairs, "Troy! Your mother called! She says it's almost time for dinner!"

"Thank you Mrs. Danforth!" Troy shouted, getting up and grabbing his back pack, "Later," he said, and without another word left.

"Gabby, what is your boyfriend's problem?" Taylor asked turning to her friend.

"He has been acting a little weird lately," Kelsi added quietly.

Gabby shook her head, shrugging that she didn't know either, before staring at the stairs that Troy had just gone up.

Troy took a deep breath of fresh air as soon as he was out of the house, he couldn't stand to be in that basement another minute otherwise he knew he'd have said something he'd regret later. He shook his head, but it was over and now, he checked his watch, he only had...15 minutes to get home and get ready.

It was a good thing that Chad lived down the block and around the corner from Troy; otherwise he would have been late enough to not have a chance to change before Sharpay got there. He ran to his room, changing to a pair of shorts and a jersey. His dad had mentioned something about playing one-on-one with Sharpay when she got there, at least until dinner was done.

He knew that Sharpay was going to come in more basketball type clothes as well; he'd glimpsed the extra clothes in her duffle bag during their (now) daily routine of 4th period B-Ball. And he was right, no more than two minutes after he'd changed, the doorbell rang.

His mother had answered it, to reveal Sharpay in yellow 'boy' shorts with an orange tank top on. His mother hugged Sharpay in greeting before ushering Troy over to entertain their guest while she went to finish dinner. He smiled at her embarrassedly before his father called them both out to their backyard court to help them practice.

With a few pointers from Coach Bolton, Sharpay was able to hold her own against Troy much better than she had been, even managing to score the first basket. They were playing for about fifteen minutes when Troy's mother called the Coach in to help her. He left them and the game started to get silly with Troy trying ridiculous shots and Sharpay traveling to the basket.

Sharpay had gotten the ball; the game was tied 4-4, when Troy unexpectedly picked her up from around her waist behind her. He turned in a circle a few times till Sharpay let go of the ball before falling on his back on the grass. Sharpay rolled off him, scrambling to get up when Troy pinned her to the grass and started to tickle her unmercifully. She retaliated and soon the two were engaged in an all out tickle war…completely unaware that they were being watched…

Mrs. Bolton let out a content sigh as her husband wrapped his arms around her from behind. She rested her head against his chest, watching her son be so gently with the girl. She could tell that he cared for her deeply, even though she knew he'd never admit to it. Suddenly she felt a tingle in her side and quickly jumped away from her husband.

"Jack Bolton, don't you dare!" She shouted, holding her hand over her side, guarding her own tickle spot well. He gave her a boyish look which she ignored, "No, besides…" she trailed as a ding was heard from behind her, "Dinner is ready." With that she walked past him and into the kitchen, but not before throwing a "Call the kids" over her shoulder.

Jack laughed as he opened the back door. Cupping his hands around his mouth he shouted, "Troy! Dinner's ready!"

Both kids looked up out of breath, red faced with tears in their eyes, to see Coach Bolton standing in the door way, shoulder shaking slightly as if laughing at them.

Troy took a few deep breaths, "Be…right…there!" He called back breathlessly.

His dad went back inside the house as Troy stood, offering a hand to help Sharpay up.

"This…isn't over…Bolton," he heard her wheeze in between gasps.

"Not by…a long shot…Evans," he replied, starting to head towards the house, Sharpay following close behind.

Dinner was very good in Sharpay's opinion…not just the food, which was delicious to say the least, but the company as well. Sharpay couldn't remember the last time her brother, father, and her had sat down to a family dinner. So this was…nice…really nice.

Mrs. Bolton asked how Sharpay liked high school, the things she was interested in, her school work, things like that…boys…Which, when mentioned, would find Troy nearly choking on his drink.

Sharpay and Troy had decided, during their 4th period basketball game, to tell his parents everything about what she had been doing with her time…excluding the Ice Queen part…

They were stunned to discover that she was taking all AP classes, learning Basketball, Tennis, and Soccer, teaching Karate, taking acting, singing, dancing lessons among other things, and volunteering as well as planning to try out for sports next year…which greatly pleased Coach. They were even more stunned to discover that she had gotten Troy interested in volunteering as well. He had had endless questioning from his parents as to where he had been for the last week, coming home so late at night, they had never expected it was because he was volunteering.

Jack smiled softly at that his son's desire to do some good. His mother, Troy's grandmother, had loved to volunteer when she was living…bless her soul. She had always had her sons, Jack and his brothers, helping out, always made sure that her boys knew how to give back to the community. It made him proud to see Troy wanting to do the same.

Once dinner was finished up, Sharpay got up to help Mrs. Bolton clean the dishes as was polite…or at least help her put them in the dishwasher as Mrs. Bolton was doing. When they came back Jack was going over various ideas he had for next year's season. Mrs. Bolton cleared her throat, alerting Jack to the fact that they were back in the room.

When Coach Bolton saw Sharpay he jumped up, "Sharpay, how about you and Troy come out back with me and well run some plays I've been thinking about for next season?"

Sharpay was about to respond when Mrs. Bolton spoke up, "Jack, not now."

"Oh, come on Hun," he said stepping up to her, "It'll only be a few minutes."

Troy rolled his eyes, a few minutes to his dad…especially when it involved basketball…meant a few hours.

Thankfully, Mrs. Bolton knew her husband well enough to know what a few minutes meant. "No Jack…"

"Please honey?" He begged, giving her a puppy dog look. Sharpay giggled at the two, finally discovering where Troy learned his own puppy dog look.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, Sharpay could tell that she was just as much a sucker for Coach Bolton's puppy face as Sharpay was for Troy's. "You can't!"

"Why not?" he asked confused.

"Because…" she glanced at Troy.

"Because what?" he asked again as his wife pulled him off to the side to speak with him.

Sharpay glanced at the old grandfather clock in the corner of the room. It was almost six fifteen, she had to leave soon. She caught Troy's eye and nodded at the clock. He got the message and silently led her to the front door while his parents continued their hushed conversation.

They said good bye and Troy watched as she drove off before heading back to his parents.

He entered the room in time to see a look of realization make its way onto his father's face. They turned to look at Troy, noticing that Sharpay wasn't there.

"Where did Sharpay go hun?" his mother asked.

"She had her karate lesson." He answered taking a seat while his parents continued to look at him. "Is there something going on that I should know about?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well…son…" Jack started, stuffing his hands in his pocket, "As you know, your mom and I are both very proud of you for the championship game."

Troy nodded, "And we're proud of you getting the lead in the musical," his mother added, "You were great!"

"O…kay…" Troy said slowly, not really sure what they were getting at.

"You also managed to keep up your grades and keep out of trouble…" his father continued.

"Well, honey…we just wanted to…" his mother trailed off, not knowing the exact words to use. Instead she simply handed him a plain white envelope.

Troy glanced utterly confused at his parents before opening the envelope, turning it upside down, letting the contents fall into his hand.

He turned the two rectangular slips of paper over in his hands, eyes widening as he read what they were…two tickets to go see Wicked!

A/N – So…I love Wicked! Greatest musical every! I bet you all can guess who Troy is going to take with him…I mean, not Gabby…or Chad…or Taylor…so you've probably already guessed it correctly. The whole mechanics of the trip are to be explained in the next chappy! And after that…official Troypayness!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Nearly two weeks had passed since Troy's parents had given him two tickets to go see Wicked in New York during the three day break! They had said that he deserved it for everything that he had accomplished that year. They had told him to invite one of his friends to go with him…and the only person he could think to ask was Sharpay.

Gabby refused to see it, Taylor wouldn't have seen the point, Chad hated musicals, and there really wasn't anyone else who would be willing to go with him.

It had taken a lot of convincing on Sharpay's part, she'd have to give up Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to go…but once Troy dangled the tickets in her face and told her of his parents offer, a plane trip there, a hotel to stay in, and a plane ride back, she really couldn't say no. Of course, Troy had to offer her his soul for a whole week in the summer, helping her volunteer to make up for lost time, but he gladly accepted. It gave him something to do and time to spend with her.

He still couldn't believe his parents were doing that for him. Not only had they gotten tickets for the perfect weekend to go, but they paid for the plane tickets there and back, and a hotel room. Troy had been completely shocked that they had only gotten him one room…with two beds…but still. His parents had assured him that they trusted him and whoever he chose not to do anything wrong.

So there he was, sitting on a plane with Sharpay sitting next to him clutching his hand. She had told him before they got on that she hated flying. Not so much the being in the air with the threat of crashing, but the take off and landing. He assured her everything would be fine and offered his hand for her to break while it happened.

The plane ride there didn't take as long as Troy and Sharpay had thought it would. The had gone to the airport around 12, grabbing some lunch, just to make sure that they would be there for their 2:10 flight. The flight hadn't been delayed leaving or arriving, so they touched down right around 5:30-5:45. It took them about a half hour to get their bags, hail a cab, and get to their hotel. They set all of their things straight; calling their families to let them know they were fine…well Sharpay left a message. Then they headed up to the last floor to get some dinner at the restaurant.

The next day they went out into the city, after catching a quick breakfast, to spend the day just sightseeing. They went to Madison Square Garden first, taking in all the shops there before heading over to Hershey World at the request of Sharpay. And since they went there Troy deemed it his rite to pick the place they'd eat for lunch. He chose the Play by Play restaurant…of course, sports…there's no way to escape it.

But after lunch, Sharpay and Troy were just walking around when Sharpay saw one of her favorite shops across the street. The Disney Store! She practically dragged Troy across the street once the walk sign flashed green. Troy had to laugh when she bolted into the store and started to run around like a little kid during Christmas.

Eventually she slowed down, taking time to look at all the items in the store. Her gaze wandered and stopped on a very small plush Pinocchio doll. She ran her hand over it, her lack of movement attracting Troy to her. When he saw what she was staring at, he knew what she was thinking.

She was remembering Jason's last day in Alberque. She had gone to the hospital, Troy had gone with her, dressed in her princess gown. She brought with her an extra copy of Pinocchio that she had bought especially for Jason to read when he went to his new hospital. It was an emotional good bye party. Jason had given Sharpay a drawing he had made of her in her blue dress…but with wings. His small writing was scrawled across the top: To Sharpay, My Blue Fairy.

Sharpay had cried at that. She had tried so hard not to let Jason see her cry, she didn't want to upset him before he left for New York…

New York!

Troy's eyes widened as an idea hit him. He grabbed the small doll, pulling Sharpay with him to the checkout stand. He ignored her questions as he paid for the doll and ran out of the store. When she finally caught up with him, he had just finished talking with a police officer who was pointing somewhere.

Troy nodded his thanks before taking Sharpay's hand and running in the direction that the man had pointed. He pushed through the crowds, Sharpay barely managing to hold onto his hand as he led her through the streets.

He looked up for a moment, before running into a building. Sharpay looked around wondering where on earth they were when Troy handed her the small bag with the doll in it before heading off to an elderly woman sitting behind the main desk. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but Troy came back soon enough with a huge smile plastered on his face.

He took her hand, ignoring her questioning gaze, leading her over to an elevator and taking it to the fourth floor. They walked slowly down the halls, Troy leading slightly. He read off the numbers by the doors quietly to himself, before finding the one that he was looking for. He turned smiling to Sharpay before knocking on the door. A small voice called out, telling them to come in.

Sharpay's breath hitched in her throat as she saw Jason! He was sitting on his bed, reading Pinocchio, but stopped when he saw that it was Sharpay standing in the door. The little boy literally jumped off the bed and ran to hug her as she kneeled down to return the hug. She glanced up at Troy while she hugged the small boy, returning the 100 watt smile he was giving her.

She picked up Jason and set him back on the bed, asking him how he was doing. They talked for nearly a half hour when Jason asked her what was in the bag. Sharpay turned to give Troy another smile, before turning back to Jason and giving him the gift that was Troy's idea. The little boy's eyes widened as he saw his favorite character sitting in the palms of his hands. He gave Sharpay and Troy a hug. He was about to tell them about how much he had read the book Sharpay had given him when a nurse came in to give him lunch.

Troy and Sharpay said their good byes, stepping out into the hall as the nurse entered. Sharpay couldn't wait any longer; she jumped into Troy's arms hugging the life out of him while he hit the wall behind him. He managed to free his arms and wind them around her, returning the hug full force.

They looked at the time and realized that they still had enough time to catch a quick movie before they wanted to head out to dinner. So they went to go see The Omen. They had such a laugh at the whole movie, it was sooo stupid!

They were still laughing as they walked into Mars 2112 for dinner. They were served relatively quickly since they had to get to the Gershwin Theatre by 8. They had pretty good seats Row M near the center of the Orchestra.

Sharpay grabbed Troy's hand as they made their way around the block to the Gershwin. They were both so excited…they were finally going to get to see Wicked!

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Nah…

Nearly two and a half hours later, Troy and Sharpay emerged from the theatre laughing and holding hands. Sharpay had a bag with a Wicked sweatshirt neatly folded, clasped in her hand as they walked to the corner of the building.

"That was amazing!" Sharpay shouted above the crowd. They were pressed near the building.

"I know!" Troy replied, "It was so much better than I expected!"

"Oh my god!" She said taking a deep breath, holding a hand to her heart, "The best was definitely As Long as You're Mine."

"What?" Troy asked, the crowds were really surging.

"You know…the end of it…" she started before singing the ending of the song, "Every moment…"

As soon as Troy heard those two words, he knew just what she had been talking about, so he joined in, "As long as you're mine!"

They both sang the song, balanced in perfect harmony, "Come be how you want to! And see how bright we shine, borrow the moonlight until it is through and know I'll be here holding you…as long as you're mine!"

Just then Troy did something Sharpay had not been expecting, not in a million years…he leaned down and kissed her…right in front of the small crowd that had gathered to watch and listen. Troy pulled away quickly, feeling Sharpay tense beneath him.

Sharpay looked up at him shocked; she gently brushed her fingers across her lips before looking back up at Troy.

An eyebrow rose amongst one of the men who had stopped to listen. 'Hmm…' the old man thought to himself, 'Fiyero kissing Elphaba…and her looking shocked…that's an interesting twist…' The man looked up to see the young couple starting to walk off. He squinted, noticing the East High Wildcats logo across the back of the young man's jersey. It was duly noted as the Wizard stepped back into the theatre.

"Sharpay!" Troy called as Sharpay started to walk away. "Sharpay wait!" He jogged slightly to catch up to her, taking her hand in his.

"Sharpay I'm sorry if the kiss upset you," he started, but she only walked faster, "I…I just had to…" She turned the corner, heading in the direction of the hotel, "Can you blame me?" he asked her, "You're beautiful and smart and funny and…"

He continued to point out all the reasons why he had wanted to kiss her, even as they walked into the lounge of the hotel.

"…and compassionate and caring and considerate and…" he continued as she pulled him up the stairs to the fourth floor.

"…and kind hearted and sincere and honest and…" he let go of her hand as she shakily looked for the room key in her purse, but he didn't stop his words.

Sharpay opened the door quickly, pulling him inside with her, "…and a great actress and empathetic and…"

The only time he did stop his talking was when Sharpay pushed him against the door the second it shut and pressed her lips against his, the bag with her sweatshirt in it soon forgotten. It took him a second to realize that Sharpay was kissing him, but as soon as he did he responded to her with equal fervor.

He ran his tongue across her lip seeking entrance, which she gladly gave. He pushed away from the wall slowly, both of them walking backwards until Sharpay reached the edge of the bed, falling backwards and pulling Troy down with her.

One of Troy's hands wound around her waist while the other roamed her body, careful not to brush over anything that would offend her. Sharpay's arms were locked around his neck, holding him close to her as their heated kisses continued.

Only lack of air was enough to make them part. When they did, Troy looked deep into her eyes, seeing happiness floating in her blue reflective pools. He slowly brought his head down, resting his forehead against hers. He took a breath, "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." He muttered quietly.

She smiled softly, "And you have no idea how badly I wanted you to do that."

He returned her smiled, slowly getting off of her when he realized that he was lying on top of her. She got up a few moments later, walking over to her suit case to get her pajamas out, and heading into the bathroom to change.

Troy shook his head, he couldn't believe he'd just kissed her like he'd thought of doing for the past two weeks…two weeks of torture…he couldn't believe she'd kissed him back!

That thought put a wider smile on his face as he got changed quickly and got into bed. He'd only shut his eyes for a few minutes when he felt the edge of the bed sink and the covers move as someone laid down next to him. He turned in the bed to see Sharpay lying next to him. He reached out, pulling her closer to him so her back was rested against his chest. He wove his arms around her waist as she wrapped her arms around his. He breathed in the smell of her herbal shampoo, rosemary, letting out a content sigh.

"I love you," he whispered softly into her hair.

"I love you too," was her even softer reply, one that sent them both into a peaceful slumber.

A/N – I hope them saying I love you wasn't too soon…but I think it was fine, they have been spending nearly three weeks together and if Henry and Danielle (Ever After) can fall in love in five days, why not someone else in three weeks? Any way, next chapter…what happens when Troy breaks up with Gabriella? What questions will it rise? What suspicions?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

The plane ride back on Sunday had been much more relaxed and comfortable for both of them. They had spent most of the time going over the lines for the play. There was only about a week and a half of school left which meant that finals would be taking place all week which just added more stress to those in the Play. The EYP was to show that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and Ms. Darbus wanted everyone to have all their lines memorized by the first practice after the three day break was over. Troy had most of his lines down, but the extra practicing on the plane helped him nail the rest.

The two were so exhausted from all the excitement of that weekend, that they fell asleep a few minutes after they finished their make shift rehearsal. They awoke when the announcement of the approach was made. They blushed at each other when they saw that Sharpay had fallen asleep on his shoulder and he had wound his arm around her waist.

As soon as they got off the plane Troy was immediately seized by his mother who very nearly hugged the life out of him she was so glad he was alright. Sharpay smiled softly at the display of love, knowing that her father and Ryan weren't there…not that they'd do the same even if they were. But she was pleasantly surprised when Mrs. Bolton enveloped her in a motherly hug as well.

Mr. Bolton offered to drive Sharpay home from the airport, an offer she was glad that she had accepted because she was so jet lagged. As they drove down her street Troy had asked her why Ryan wasn't there to greet her. She had replied that they had not spoken in weeks since he had called her a bitch. She had also remarked that he probably had even noticed she wasn't home. He usually left early in the morning while she spelt and got home after her. She let out a bitter laugh when she told him that she had stuffed her bed to make it look like she was sleeping just to see if anyone would notice.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she arrived home to all the lights out again. Mrs. Bolton had asked if she would be alright by herself till her father came home. Sharpay nodded, getting a kiss good bye from Troy before heading into her house.

The next day was to be the most interesting day that either of them had had yet…though they didn't know it when it began.

They day started off normally for both Troy and Sharpay up until just before Homeroom was to start. Troy had glanced up from his locker to look at Sharpay putting her things in hers. He then looked across the hall to where Gabriella and Taylor were laughing at something. He let out a sigh, shutting his locker and making his way over to his girlfriend.

"Hey Troy!" Gabby said, turning to face him with a 100 watt smile…though one that appeared dimmer to Troy than Sharpay's.

"Hey…" he said unenthusiastically…he really hated what he was about to do.

"Is something wrong Troy?" she asked, glancing at Taylor who nodded in agreement.

"Um…not really…I just…" he took a deep breath. Gabriella was dreading that his next words would be 'we have to talk', but they weren't, to her relief, "I have to ask you something." She nodded for him to continue, "Alone." He added, noticing Taylor still standing there.

Taylor looked back and forth between the two very quickly before gathering up her bag, "Consider me gone," she said turning to leave, heading for Chad who stood just at the other end of the hall.

The two stood in silence for a moment or two till Gabriella spoke again, "What is it you needed to ask me?"

Troy sighed, before taking a deep breath, "How do you feel about me?"

She gave him a questioning look before answering, "I think you're a really great guy Troy. You're smart, funny, athletic, and understanding." 'All the things I love about you,' she thought happily to herself…was that what he was trying to get at? Was he trying to finally tell her that he loved her?

Troy smiled gently, "And I think you're a really great girl Gabriella." He replied. Her smiled dimmed just a little; he hadn't called her Gabriella since before they started dating…he always called her Gabby. But she brushed the thought aside; this was a serious conversation, not one for nicknames. "You're smart, empathetic, and kind." Be took a deep breath, "I've been a little distant lately…"

"It's okay Troy," Gabriella said, putting a hand gently on his arm. "Everything is a little crazy with finals starting this week and the play and…"

"It's not that," Troy said quickly, "It's just…it's given me a lot of time to think…about some things…" He looked at her confused expression, hating himself for what he was about to say, "…about us…"

"What about us?" she asked, dropping her hand and bringing it back to the books clutched to her chest.

"I…I just don't…feel that spark…that we had…" he looked away, "I…I know you don't feel it either…I've been so distant and we've grown father apart and…"

Gabriella felt tears fill her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. He was speaking the truth; they had drifted apart in the few weeks. She _didn't_ feel the spark…but it didn't mean that his words didn't hurt her…it's hard to break up with someone you think you might have loved…

"Gabriella?" he asked, noticing her thoughts start to drift.

Gabriella took a breath, "I…I don't…" she whispered.

"Don't what?" Troy asked quietly, she didn't what to break up? Didn't want to listen?

"I don't…feel that spark…" she answered.

Troy smiled softly, "I'm so sorry Gabriella…" she nodded, giving him a shaky smile of her own, "I never meant to hurt you." She looked away, he had hurt her… "Friends?" he asked, knowing that he probably sounded like some guy from a stupid breakup movie.

She nodded, feeling a tear about to fall, "Friends…" she agreed.

"Good…" Troy said nodding his head, "Good…" He gave her one sadder smile before walking quickly down the hall to homeroom.

"Gabriella?" A quiet voice said from beside her. She turned to see Taylor standing there with a worried expression on her face. She looked down the hall to see Chad, Kelsi, and Jason watching her with worried expressions as well. She looked back down, a tear falling from her eye. "What's wrong honey?"

"Troy…" she said her voice breaking, "He…broke up with me…"

Taylor was speechless. She wanted to march right up to Troy and…and…spit in his face! Punch him! Kick him! Do something to put him in a world of pain for hurting her best friend. But she couldn't do that now, Gabriella needed her more. She wrapped her arms around the girl, pulling her into a comforting, sisterly hug, as she let the tears flow freely…

Troy felt bad all day for breaking up with Gabriella. She hadn't come to homeroom, neither did Taylor. Chad did though…but when he had all he did was glare at him the entire time. He went to English feeling like a piece of shit, but playing some b-ball with Sharpay helped to take his mind off his sorrows and actually made him feel better. By lunch time he was feeling pretty good again…still feeling guilt when he passed the table that Gabriella was sitting with…Chad, Taylor, Zeke, Jason, and even Kelsi glared at him as he passed. Gabriella kept her head down and Troy knew that she had been crying.

He ate lunch with Sharpay in his hideout, talking to her about how bad he felt for hurting Gabriella as much as he had. She comforted him, offering him an ear to listen, telling him she had a surprise for him later that might make him feel better…or at least she hoped it would. She refused to tell Troy what it was that she was planning so he had to wander the rest of the day wondering what it was.

He was walking though the halls during 7th period, his father had called him down to the gym to go over something about summer basketball practices. He'd just finished with the meeting and was heading back to his Sociology class when the door to the janitor's closet next to him opened and a hand pulled him inside.

He was about to ask what was going on when he felt himself being pushed gently back against a wall and a pair of lips press against his. He immediately knew from the apple lip gloss that it was Sharpay. He smirked into the kiss…he'd have to tell her later that her surprise worked flawlessly. All thoughts of Gabriella, all thoughts of the break up, all those of…pretty much anything flew out the window as soon as her lips hit his.

They continued their make out session for another five minutes, breaking only to come up for air. When they parted their final time, Sharpay leaned forward, "Surprise," she whispered in his ear before leaving the room…leaving him completely shell shocked.

It took him a few minutes to get his bearings straight from the mind blowing kiss. Once he finally remembered that he had a class to get back to he opened the door to the closet, peeking out to make sure no one was there, before stepping out…

Chad Dansforth had been roaming the halls, trying to take up as much time as possible from his bathroom break to escape the drone of his Algebra class, when he saw a very interesting sight. He had just turned the corner when the door to the infamous janitor's closet…nicknamed the make out room…opened slowly. He jumped back behind the corner, holding back his fluffy hair to make sure no one would see him as he peered around the corner.

His eyes widened in shock as he saw his best friend Troy Bolton emerge from the room, shoulders heaving slightly from lack of air. His face was a pinkish color that alerted Chad to the fact that it had been flushed only moments ago. He watched as Troy took a step away, before quickly wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand, most likely erasing evidence that he had been in the make out room with…another girl…

As soon as Troy was out of the hall, Chad ran from around the corner, right up to the door hoping to catch the girl still in there. He threw open the door…but there was no one in there…the girl must have left first…

Chad shook his head, shutting the door and leaning against it. It wasn't that he and Gabriella were the best of friends and he was watching out for her…it was just…Gabriella was Taylor's best friend, and Taylor was his girl friend, which made Gabriella his friend…indirectly. But still, he thought Troy would have had enough sense not to cheat on any girl and then just break her heart like he had done to Gabriella.

He shook his head again, pushing himself off the door and heading back to class, making a note to talk to Taylor about this as soon as possible…

Unfortunately for Chad…though more fortunately for Troy and Sharpay, he wasn't even able to get a word into Taylor that day at play. They were doing a run through of the entire play to work out the kinks. Tomorrow it was a final run through before the first dress rehearsal with costumes but no make up on Wednesday, Thursday was a dress rehearsal with costumes and make up and finally the first day of the Production on Friday.

Ms. Darbus was on the war path during that whole time. She was literally the thespian Nazi! If a person's foot was not in the place she had previously blocked it to be in, she flipped and made them do the scene over.

The group was standing back stage, right by the curtains, peeking through as they watched the beginning of Act three unfold. They were all watching, before then they had not seen how Zeke managed to turn into a donkey while still in the audience's view and they were all excited to see it happen.

Sharpay stood on her tip toes, peering through the crack in the curtain to the other side of the stage where she could see the others peering through the opposite curtain. Here eyebrow's furrowed slightly; she couldn't see Troy from there. She glanced back at everyone on her side of the stage, they were too engrossed in watching the scene to notice her slink back to the back wall. She hurriedly ran behind the scenery along the wall to the other side, peering around the corner of it to see Troy no where in sight.

'Where is he?' she thought to herself, alarmed. He was supposed to go on mid Act! She ran back across the back of the scenery, slowly creeping behind everyone and into the adjoining chorus room. No one was there to see her run out of the room, shutting the door lightly so no one would here it before taking off down the hallway in search of her Demetrius.

She thanked whatever powers that were watching over her for her costume selection. She was wearing soft black ballet shoes which meant that they made almost no sound at all as she rushed down the halls. She stopped in the middle of a hallway, turning to look down the other end of it. "Troy where are you?" she muttered to herself.

She was about to leave and check the other halls when two pairs of arms encircled her waist, pulling her into a darkened room. "What…" she started, when a pair of soft lips connected with hers. She relaxed instantly as she recognized Troy's figure in the darkness.

A few minutes later Sharpay remembered why she had been looking for Troy in the first place, "Troy…" she whispered, pulling back slightly. Troy kissed her, quickly cutting off her words…making her forget what she was about to say for another minute or two.

"Troy we have to…" Her thoughts wandered as Troy started to leave a trail of kisses down her next. Sharpay's breaths came shorter, she wanted to just let him continue his passionate kisses but she couldn't, "Your scene…"

"What about it?" he asked, pulling his mouth from her neck and placing it back on her lips.

"You're supposed to go…" her eyes glazed over as his found her sweet spot, just below her ear. "Oh screw it!" she exclaimed, pushing Troy away and launching herself at him.

When air became an issue…right at the very, very end, for they had gone on kissing as long as humanly possible…they broke apart, barely able to get enough breath to fill their lungs. After they had both taken very many deep breaths, Troy rested his head against hers, "What…about…my scene?" he asked, gasping.

"It's coming…up soon…" Sharpay answered breathlessly.

"When?" he asked.

Sharpay looked at him, realizing that she had lost all sense of time from the minute Troy pulled her into the make out room.

"I don't…remember…" She looked up to see Troy smirking slightly at her, proud that he had been able to offer her a distraction.

He leaned in to try to kiss her again, but Sharpay forced herself to pull away…no matter how good a kisser he was…or…or how close he was to her…or…or how god damn hot he looked in his costume in the dim light…or…why didn't she want to kiss him again?

A piece of her dress caught on something as she moved away from him…That's why!

The play! His scene was coming up!

"You have to go!" she shouted, mind clearing slightly.

"Why?" he asked, pressing closer to her.

Sharpay swallowed hard, he was so close she could feel his breath on her cheek…feel his heart beating through his…

"Your scene!" she shouted again, snapping herself out of her stupor…damn Troy Bolton and his ability to make her forget… "It's coming up soon!" she pushed.

He took a step back, trying to clear his head as well…only Sharpay seemed to have that affect on him…making him not care about anything but being near her… He looked down at himself; he was still in his costume…The play! Of course!

"Thanks for getting me," he said quickly, leaning down to give her a quick peck.

"Any time," she replied dreamily, fingers brushing over her lips.

Troy gave her a boyish smile before quickly leaving the closet. Sharpay waited a moment longer, calming herself, breathing deep. She opened the door, making sure no one was there before stepping out. She ran stopped by her locker on her way back to the auditorium, just to make sure her face wasn't still as red as if felt. She was happy to see that it was a barely noticeable shade of pink.

By the time she got back to the chorus room, her blush was completely gone. She'd even managed to sneak back to her spot back stage without anyone noticing her. They were still watching as Puck finished telling Oberon about Titania and Bottom.

Sharpay smiled softly to herself as Troy came on stage following Gabriella, no one had even noticed they were gone…

A/N – Or had they? Nah, I'm just kidding. Or am I? No, they got lucky that time…Next, chappy Chad tells Taylor what he saw and they try to figure out what's going on with Troy.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

The next day Chad had noticed that Troy was missing…well at least most of the time…He hadn't been to lunch with the group nor was he anywhere to be found during fourth period…but now that he thought about it Troy had been missing during those periods for nearly a month now.

Something was definitely going on…and he was damn well going to find out what it was.

That after noon, just before play started he'd managed to get to Taylor, Gabriella, Ryan, Kelsi, Jason, and Zeke and get them to agree to meet him after play was over to talk. Play was a disaster waiting to happen…Zeke wasn't able to become a donkey fast enough, Taylor nearly fell out of her swinging bed, Chad's toga nearly fell off to reveal his superman boxers, Gabriella got the hiccups in the middle of her fight with Sharpay, Ryan's sword got stuck in its sheath, Jason and Kelsi were the most awkward couple on stage and they were supposed to be getting married! The only two people it seemed, who didn't screw up, were Sharpay (no surprise there) and Dutch…but that was only because he kept making fun of everything…which Ms. Darbus had said was great improvisation. Troy also screwed up…well, he almost did. He disappeared for a few minutes just before he was supposed to go on stage and fight with Helena…who was also missing in search of Demetrius. Troy wandered in a minute after he was supposed to start his scene and Sharpay showed up a few minutes after that, going on stage to do her scene, but not before starting an argument with Troy about how he should have been more punctual.

Ms. Darbus called the rehearsal early; she was near tears at how horrible everything was going and decided to head home to pray to the acting gods for a miracle.

Once everyone had put their outfits back in the prop room, they all gathered around Chad in the halls. They waited until everyone, especially Troy, had left before they too headed out to talk.

"Ok, you guys, "Chad said as they walked down the hall way, "Now what I'm about to tell you cannot…I repeat…cannot leave this group. Understood?"

They started to nod when Taylor shook her head, "We all agree Chad now cut it with the 007 act." She honestly didn't know why she stayed with the Neanderthal basketball boy…but he was soo cute…and his hair reminded her of her pet poodle Monique. (A/N – I love poodle head!)

Chad straightened up and sighed, "Must you always kill my groove?"

"Your groove?" Taylor asked, laughing, "Chad you have a groove the equivalent of a mongoos…"

"Guys!" Ryan shouted, breaking up their bickering.

"What?!" They shouted in unison, turning to face him.

"Can we get on with this please?" he asked, "Zeke and I are supposed to shoot some hoops at the park."

"What?" Chad asked, before he looked around at the group before him and realized he was the one who called their little meeting. "Oh yeah…anyway I just wanted to tell you guys…well, mostly you Gabby cause it would affect you the most…but I…I saw Troy leave the Janitor's closet."

The group gave him a confused look, "The janitor's closet?" Taylor asked incredulously, "You called a meeting because Troy got something out of a janitor's closet?"

"Not a Janitor's closet," Chad said, annoyance seeping into his voice, "The Janitor's closet."

"The janitor's closet?" Jason asked.

"Oh!" Zeke said, his eyes widening, "_The_ Janitor's closet! The make out room!"

"Yes!" Chad shouted, relieved that someone finally got it.

Kelsi looked over at Gabby as they continued to walk, noticing her downcast look, "Well…that doesn't necessarily mean that he was…you know…with someone in it…"

"No he was with someone," Chad said, completely unaware of Gabby's uncomfortableness, "He stepped out, out of breath, wiped off his lips, red faced…"

"Alright Chad," Taylor said, putting a comforting arm around her friend, "We don't need an analysis of Troy's post labia excursion."

"Post labia what's it?" Chad asked, getting lost at the scientific jargon.

"After his lip lock!" she shouted, before hugging Gabriella closer, "Sorry…"

"It's okay," she replied quietly, not looking anyone in the eye, "We're not together any more…he has every right…"

"No he doesn't!" Taylor shouted outraged, "You only broke up that morning; he had no right to find someone that quickly!"

"Find someone?" Ryan asked, "Who'd he find?" They all looked at him; he was definitely having one of his blond moments. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "You mean found someone better…"

"RYAN!" Taylor shouted. A loud SMACK followed after she whooped him one upside the head.

Chad nodded solemnly, "I was thinking that too…" Chad started, but then saw the glare his girlfriend was throwing him as she raised her fist, "No! No, I meant I was thinking that he couldn't have found someone that fast…I know Troy…he wouldn't just make out with some random person…"

Taylor looked her boyfriend in the eyes, shock flashing through them, "You mean…"

Chad nodded, confirming her thoughts.

"What?" Gabriella asked, looking up to see the silent exchange.

"I think that…maybe…Troy might have been seeing someone…_before_ he broke up with you…" Chad said softly, not wanting to hurt Gabriella any more than she had been.

Gabriella's eyes filled with tears. It was bad enough that Troy and she had drifted apart, worse that they had broken up…but now? He had been cheating on her?

"It makes sense," Taylor said, hugging Gabby as she started to cry, "That's the only reason I can see for him breaking up with you like that…"

Gabriella shook her head; they had broken up because they had drifted apart…_had_ they drifted apart? Had someone forced their way between them? Is that why Troy drifted?

They had come to a stop a few moments ago, when Gabriella had started crying. They were leaning against the fence in front of the library, waiting till she calmed down.

"Don't worry Gabby," Kelsi said, taking Jason's hand in her own, "We'll get to the bottom of it."

"Yes we will," Taylor affirmed. There was no way that she was going to sit by while some two bit hussy stole her best friend's man.

"Yeah," Chad agreed.

With that, the group dispersed, Kelsi and Jason going to work on their lines and Zeke and Ryan to shoot some hoops. Chad, Taylor, and Gabriella stood there a moment longer.

"Want to come to my house?" Taylor asked, not wanting Gabriella to have to go home alone. "We can study for the Chem. test on Thursday."

Gabriella nodded, "Just let me call my mom and tell her."

She stepped off to the side as Taylor turned to Chad. "How are we going to do this?" she asked.

Chad shook his head; the only answer he could come up with was to ask Troy's parents what was going on. He barely saw Troy anymore and he doubted even if he could get the guy alone he wouldn't spill anything. The only other person who Chad would be able to find out info from was whoever Troy was seeing and he didn't even know if he _was_ seeing someone else.

"I'm gonna go talk to Troy's parents tomorrow," he said. He couldn't today; his mother wanted help alphabetizing her Broadway CDs. Chad shuddered at the thought before kissing Taylor a quick good bye and walking off.

Taylor turned to Gabriella, waiting till she finished speaking with her mom before talking. "You ok?" she asked, hugging her friend.

Gabriella nodded sadly before walking off with Taylor…

Just behind the spot where the whole group had stood, a blonde sat looking out the library windows watching them. She frowned to herself when she saw Gabriella start to cry. She was taking the break up really hard, which made Sharpay feel all the more guilty at being the cause of it.

But she had to keep reminding herself, she hadn't made Troy break up with her, she hadn't asked him to. He did that on his own…it was his choice to be with her now. And everyone just had to accept it…no matter how hard it was…

"…still don't understand it," she heard Troy mutter from his seat next to her.

She looked over at him, as he stared intently at his notes, his Grapes of Wrath book lying open before him. She looked around briefly, no one ever used the library during finals week…it was weird…the one place you'd expect student to flock to study was barely even occupied.

"What don't you get?" she asked, trying to look of his shoulder and decipher his chicken scratch.

"What the hell does a turtle have to do with the Great Depression?" he asked, looking up at her, utter confusion shining through his eyes.

She smiled, "Mrs. Chase went over that when we first started reading." She flipped open her notebook, showing him what Mrs. Chase, their teacher, had said on the subject. "The turtle crossing the road is supposed to represent the hardships that the Oakies had to go through on their journey. To show how they had to be strong and keep going, to keep trying even though no one would help them."

Troy looked up at her, mouth open. She reached out and gently shut it, earning a smile from him, "Well, aren't you just little miss smarty pants?"

"Watch it Bolton," Sharpay replied jokingly, mocking offense, "I may act like a bitch, but that doesn't mean I can't be one from time to time…"

"It doesn't matter to me," he said, scribbling what she had said about the turtle down, "I'd love you anyway." She smiled softly, "And besides," he continued, "I don't think you'd dare be that mean to me…need I remind you?" he asked pulling out his camera phone, "The attack of the killer birds?"

He flashed her the picture of her tennis match with the pigeons attacking her, and she let out a loud laugh which she tried to hide…resulting in a combination of a sneeze and a snort.

"Shhhh!" one of the elderly librarians hissed.

"Sorry," Sharpay whispered back.

Troy laughed to himself before shutting his notebook and getting up. He offered his hand to Sharpay as she followed suit. Together they walked out to the back of the library so they could split up and go their separate ways.

Troy gave her a sweet kiss good bye, stepping away from her when he felt a tug. He looked back at Sharpay as she smiled.

"Sorry…" she started, "About yelling at you before…"

Troy smiled as well knowing she was referring to their previous…explosive…argument about punctuality. "You're not the only actor who can fake anger," he said jokingly. He stepped closer to her, "So…do you think I have a shot at acing our English final tomorrow?"

Sharpay laughed, "I don't know about acing," she said, "but you'll do pretty good."

He raised an eyebrow, smiling, "Well…I do know one subject I can ace…" he stepped closer to her.

"Oh?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck, "And what's that?"

"This," he said before planting one on her. The sugar sweet kiss soon turned passionate as tongues dueled for dominance. He pulled away; smirking at Sharpay's dazed expression.

"Well…" she started, clearing her throat, "You definitely have an A in my book…"

He let out a laugh before leaning down to kiss her good bye. This time he did step away from her, walking off around the building to head to the school for his car.

Sharpay leaned against the wall of the library, looking up at the sky catching her breath, "Wow…" was all she could say before she to headed around the edge of the building.

A/N – Yay! Another chappy done! I wanted to kinda put in something where the whole group is trying to figure out Troy and they leave without noticing he was right there behind them with Sharpay, lol. They sure are oblivious since Sharpay and Troy could be seen through the window. Next chapter will probably be Chad talking to Troy's parents about where he's been.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

There was a knocking at the door that pulled the woman's attention away from her work of cleaning a small amount of dishes before she started dinner. She picked up and old rag, wiping her hands off before heading to the front door to see who was there.

"Why hello Chad," the woman greeted, stepping aside for the boy to come in, "How are you?"

"I'm good Mrs. Bolton," Chad answered stepping past the woman and into the house.

"How's the play going?" she asked, remembering how Troy Mentioned that Chad had gotten into the play as well.

"It's good; we just did our first dress rehearsal." He answered following her into the kitchen. The past two days, Darbus had given them the option of dressing in their costumes or not, but today had been the first day of mandatory dress.

"Well that's good to hear," She added, resuming her work of cleaning the dishes, "I can't wait to see it."

There was silence for a few moments till Chad couldn't take it anymore, "Mrs. Bolton, I've been wondering something…" he trailed, taking her silence as a means to continue, "Has Troy been acting a little…odd…to you?"

Mrs. Bolton looked up from the dishes, face softening when she remembered how Troy had begged her not to tell anyone about his volunteer work till he was ready. She turned, wiping her hands off once more, "Not really," she said, "Why, have you?"

"Well…yeah," he said shrugging, as if Troy's changed behavior was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's just…the guys on the team and I…we're kinda worried about him…you know? We just want to make sure he's…okay?"

Mrs. Bolton laughed at that, boys these days were so paranoid. As soon as sports aren't the most important thing in the world something is wrong. "You have nothing to worry about Chad, Troy's just been hanging out with one of his friends more, that's all."

"He's been hanging out with someone?" Chad asked, "From the team?"

"No," she replied, shaking her head, "At least I don't think so. They've been spending a lot of time together." She laughed again, "Jack and I thought that something bad was going on when he started coming home late for the past three weeks…We were so surprised when he told us that he…"

"He's been staying out late?" Chad asked, surprised.

Mrs. Bolton nodded, "But he had a perfectly good excuse and his father and I were just happy he wasn't getting into trouble…you know…" she started, "We actually surprised him with a gift for keeping out of trouble, and doing so well in school what with the championships and play and all."

"A gift?"

"Yes, we got him tickets to go see Wicked over the three day break." She laughed, "You should have seen the look on his face when we told him he could go see it." She shook her head, "We got him plane tickets out there and back and a hotel room to stay in with two beds and two tickets to go see the musical."

"Two tickets?"

"Yes, for him and a friend of his."

"His friend?" Chad asked, not having a clue which one of the guys from the team had gone with him.

"Yes," Mrs. Bolton said walking briskly around the kitchen. She stopped suddenly and leaned against the counter, "She kept telling me about what a wonderful time they had, kept thanking me too."

"She?" Chad asked, completely shocked…Troy had gone to New York! To see a musical? With a girl!? ALONE!

"Yes," Mrs. Bolton nodded, turning to rummage in the cabinets for something, "Troy's little girl friend." She added, finding the box she was looking for and reading the back of it.

Chad's eyes widened, Gabriella went to New York? She couldn't have. She had slept over Taylor's house on Friday night…

That could only mean one thing…Troy had gone to New York all weekend with another girl…not his girlfriend…

'Oh my god!' he thought to himself…images flashed through is head of just what a teenage boy could do in the city…in a hotel room…alone with a girl all week end… Of course, he didn't think Troy would actually do any of the things he was currently thinking…most of it was a bit extreme even for a Junior…but still the complications of what Troy had done…just being alone with a girl for the weekend…was enormous.

"Chadwick?" Mrs. Bolton asked, using his whole name when she realized that his shorter name, she corrected herself, his 'cooler' name of Chad wasn't working.

It seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in, "Yes, Mrs. Bolton?" he asked, swallowing hard.

"Are you alright dear?" she asked, eyes squinting as she examined him, "You seem a bit…peckish…"

"I…I'm fine…Mrs. Bolton…" he took a breath, backing away slowly, "I'm just gonna head home…"

"Alright dear," she said, "Do you want me to tell Troy you stopped over?"

"No!" he shouted, startling her, "I…I mean, nah…I'll call him later. Later Mrs. Bolton."

She nodded her head as he left the room. He quickly ran out of the house and down the street. He had to get home to talk to Taylor immediately.

He flew through his front door, shouting a quick hi to his father before running into his room, picking up his phone, and calling Taylor.

"_Hello, McKessie residence,"_ Chad heard on the other end of the line.

"Taylor?" he asked, quickly.

"_Chad?"_ she replied, _"What is it? Gabriella and I are in the middle of stud…"_

"Gabriella's there too?" he asked, not sure if she should hear what he had to say.

"_Hey Chad,"_ he heard Gabriella say on the other end.

"_So what is it Chad?"_ Taylor asked.

"Uh…I…"

"_Spit it out Chad!"_ Taylor ordered.

"I just talked to Troy's mom," he replied.

"_And?"_ Taylor asked impatiently, _"What did she say?"_

"I…uh…I really don't thing Gabriella should…"

"_It's okay Chad,"_ she said quietly, _"Go ahead."_

He sighed, "His mom said that Troy had been coming home really late for like the past three weeks…"

"_And?"_

"And…that he's been hanging out with one of his friends…"

"_And?"_

"And…will you let me talk woman?" he asked getting annoyed.

"_Will you stop calling me woman?"_ Taylor shouted over the phone, _"It's a sexist and derogatory…"_

"_Guys!"_ Gabriella said jumping in, knowing that the two could bicker for a few hours.

"_Sorry,"_ Taylor said, _"Continue."_

"Anyway…" Chad said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand, "They got him a gift for winning the championship games and getting a lead in the play…" he paused waiting for Taylor to cut him off, but when she didn't he continued, "Two tickets to go see a Broadway musical."

"_Really?"_ Taylor asked, _"I wish my parents would do that for me. When's he going?"_

"He went already," he replied, "Over the three day weekend."

There was silence for a minute, _"Why didn't he ask me?"_ Gabriella asked.

"It was Wicked," Chad answered, though he wasn't sure if that was why Troy had not asked her or not.

"…_oh…"_ she said, almost glad Troy hadn't asked her.

"_So then who'd he go with?" _Taylor asked, _"I don't think his parents are very musicy people."_

"They're not," Chad added, "His mom just talked about how he went to New York with a friend on Friday, staid two nights in a hotel, went to Wicked on Saturday, and came back on Sunday."

"_O…kay…"_ Taylor said slowly, not sure why Chad had to call her for that.

"She said when they got back that _she_ kept thanking the Bolton's for the trip." He closed his eyes as there was silence on the other end, the full implication of what he had said sinking in.

"_Who…who was she?"_ Gabriella asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't know," Chad answered shaking his head even though the girls couldn't see, "All Mrs. Bolton said when I asked was that it was 'Troy's little girl friend.'" He sighed, "I thought it was you at first Gabby, but then I remembered that you were sleeping over Taylor's on Friday." There was more silence, "I'm sorry."

"_No…"_ Gabby said sighing, _"It's…it's alright…"_

"_Gabby!"_ Chad heard Taylor call along with footsteps; he could only assume that Gabriella had left the room. _"Chad?"_ he heard Taylor ask a moment later.

"Yeah?"

"_Something just occurred to me an I hope I'm wrong for Gabriella…and Troy's…sake,"_ she started, _"There were…two…rooms right? In the hotel?"_

Chad sighed, "No," he shook his head again, not caring how pointless it was, "There were two beds but one room…"

"_Oh my god!"_ Taylor exclaimed, most likely thinking the same things that Chad had.

"That's what I thought too," he added.

"_What do we do?"_ she asked quietly.

"I don't know," he admitted, "Troy disappears every day…I say tomorrow…"

"_We find out where."_ Taylor finished for him.

"Yeah," Chad agreed.

Taylor sighed on the other end, _"I'll see you tomorrow, I'm gonna go check on Gabby."_

"Okay," he said about to put down the phone when he heard Taylor calling to him. "Yeah?" he asked, telling her that he hadn't hung up yet.

"_You do know…"_ she started, _"That we're going to have to tell the gang…right?"_

"Yeah…" he nodded, slowly dropping the phone back on the receiver ending the call. He was completely dreading tomorrow…

A/N – So…almost done actually…I'm only planning about seven more chapters after this one…one for each day of the week till the school year ends next Wednesday. Next chapter will probably be something like what happened in the movie where Troy was sneaking away from people to go to the auditions…only it'll be more like Troy and Sharpay sneaking around everyone while they try to figure out what…who…Troy is hiding…


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

The next day would find Chad with a nearly impossible task…getting everyone together so he could tell them about Troy, the girl, and New York. Everyone had such different schedules and Chad didn't feel like hunting down Kelsi, Zeke, Jason, and Ryan to explain what he'd learned over and over again. So he settled for him and Taylor to tell them to follow Troy wherever he went. If they saw him sneaking somewhere, or look like he was sneaking somewhere…follow him!

Kelsi was standing at the Drama post, copying down the times for the play when Chad had come up to her explaining her mission for the day. He told her just to keep an eye out for Troy, to make sure that he didn't leave her sight. Kelsi, not really understanding why she was supposed to watch Troy agreed quietly, she didn't really hang with them enough to know that Troy had been disappearing…

But someone did…

As soon as Kelsi and Chad walked away, Sharpay carefully made her way around the Drama post, pretending to look at the neon orange paper. She glanced up, catching Troy's eye briefly while he stood at his locker. He stuffed his books in his backpack before casually making his way over to 'read' the post as well.

Sharpay glanced around quickly, it was still early and not many people were in the hall. She stepped slowly back behind the Drama post as Troy followed.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, pretending to be digging around in his backpack should anyone happen along.

"Chad's suspicious," she muttered, pretending to check her make up in her small mirror.

Troy nearly laughed at that, "He's always suspicious."

"He's telling people to follow you," She added, "He wants to know where you disappear to."

"Well then," Troy said, zipping up his backpack as Sharpay snapped shut her compact, "We'll have to give them a chase."

He smirked in her direction before walking off. Sharpay pretended to file her nails for a few minutes before heading to homeroom. She couldn't help smirking; smiling inwardly, on the way…today would be fun!

Fourth period was almost there and Sharpay was so excited. That was the first period Chad and the rest of them knew about Troy going missing. She couldn't wait to fool them, to see how good they were at hiding and evading people.

Third period had been extended that morning to compensate finals. Mrs. Chase was a lenient teacher, if you finished early, you were allowed to leave the classroom and start free period earlier. Sharpay managed to finish the final about twenty minutes before the period would end. She handed in her paper, glanced at Troy quickly before leaving, and headed for the gym careful to keep aware of anyone about to follow her.

She managed to make it to the gym in two minutes, no one was out yet…at least not anyone from other classes, so Sharpay was able to get there relatively quick. She knocked softly on Coach Bolton's door, coming to see him as he had offered so many times before. He ushered her in telling her he was just about to lock all the doors, leaving the gym door just outside the girls locker room door open for Troy to enter and lock. Sharpay helped him, getting the job done in half the time so she and Coach Bolton could chat while they waited for Troy.

Troy handed in his paper just as the bell rang and headed out into the hall. He kept his eyes open for anyone from their group of friends who might be watching him. He didn't see anyone so he made his way casually in the direction of the gym. As he passed the Art History room, a face peered out as the student handed in his paper.

Jason quickly strode to the door, softly opening it only to see Troy about to disappear around the corner. He hurriedly walked down the hall, grabbing Taylor's elbow as she exited the AP Pre Calc room, half dragging her with him. Once she saw Troy just ahead of them she quickened her pace and Jason soon had to rush to keep up with her.

They were half way to Troy when he suddenly disappeared through the gym doors. Taylor looked to her left, seeing the gym doors just outside the boy's locker room on the other side of the gym. She went and tugged on them. They were locked…

But the tugging had alerted Sharpay, who sat just inside the boy's locker room that someone was trying to get in. She looked out of the Coach's office so see Troy locking the other door. She ran out of the room skidding to a halt by Troy. He held his finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet as they heard two sets footsteps approach.

Someone tugged on the door, but the lock didn't give way. Sharpay let out a small giggle, clamping her hand over her mouth, to hide the rest of them.

Taylor tugged on the door a little harder, but it just wouldn't give. She let out a frustrated breath, glancing around at the emptying hall. She looked to her right…maybe the girl's locker room door was unlocked? It couldn't hurt to try…

Sharpay's eyes widened as she heard one pair of the footsteps start up again…heading for the girl's locker room entrance! She hadn't locked that door! Sharpay ran to the door that connected the girl's locker room to the gym, she threw it open and ran in just managing to turn the lock on the hallway entrance door…just as Taylor grabbed it.

Taylor pulled the knob to the girl's locker room door, twisting it as she tried to push the door open…but it wouldn't move. She had heard a lock click just before she'd gotten her hand on the door. She let out a frustrated breath, eyes forming into slits as she heard the giggling again.

She went back over to Jason as they listened for any sound to come from the gym…but none did…They let out a sigh, they were supposed to meet Chad if they had any sign as to where Troy could have gone… Just as they left, however, Taylor could have sworn that she'd heard a basketball bounce…

Kelsi sat at the empty lunch table 5th period, saving the seats for her friends who were on the lunch line. She always brought her lunch in a brown bag, so it was no trouble for her to save their seats. She looked up from her seat music for the play, taking a bite out of her sandwich, when she saw him!

Troy had just entered the lunchroom, brown bagged lunch and a Gatorade in hand. He looked quickly around the room before slowly making his way up the stairs next to him. Kelsi's eyes widened…what was she supposed to do? She couldn't leave the table…but she was supposed to go after him if she saw him!

Just then Zeke placed his tray across from her at the table. "Zeke!" She said, pointing to Troy who was now half way up the crowded stairs. Zeke's eyes widened as he realized what…who she was pointing at. He left his tray, quickly making his way up the stairs in pursuit of his friend.

He followed Troy down the hall and around a corner, and into the second level of the school's library. He watched as Troy made his way to the sports section, following closely and skimming the books in the school's small cooking section. Hey, while he was there he might as well get some things done, right?

Troy quickly glanced over the various athletic books, looking from the corner of his eye to see Zeke doing the same. He knew someone had been following him, but he had to make sure. He casually proceeded to walk away, Zeke made no move to follow him till he noticed that Troy was leaving.

He quickly put his cooking book back on the shelf, quickening his pace when he noticed Troy walk through the door of the Library. He stepped out side, looking down the hall to the left where a few stairs led to a walkway and door that only the janitors had a key to, and to the right where there was a wall. He looked ahead of him, there was a stair case leading out into the middle school black top…seeing no other place that Troy could have gone, Zeke went up the stairs.

A moment later, once he was sure Zeke had left, Troy stepped out from behind the wall. The library wall curved, creating the perfect nook to hide out in, wedged between the solid wall to the right and the curved wall of the library. He smirked in the direction Zeke had gone before racing back through the library and up a different stair case…seeing Sharpay waiting for him in his hideout…

7th period was the closest anyone had come to catching Troy in one of his disappearances. He had been called down by his father again to talk about basketball and was making his way back to class much like he had last time…when, again, a pair of hands reached out from the janitor's closet and pulled him in…but not before he caught a glimpse of brown afro sticking out around the corner…

Chad had been walking to the bathroom…much like before…it was really surprising how a fake doctor's not that you had a urinary tract infection, could get you out of class so easily. He caught sight of Troy leaving the boy's locker room and decided he might have better luck catching Troy than the other had…after all, he was the one who watched all the spy movies.

He peered around the corner in time to see Troy get pulled _into_ the make out room, rather than come out of it…He was ready to jump and go see who it was that was in there with him…when a thought struck…did he _really_ want to see his best friend going at it with someone? He was there, so wouldn't it be better if he waited till they both came out? Yeah…he liked that idea better…

He'd waited about five or six minutes before the door to the room opened once again and Troy peeked out. He stepped out when he was sure that no one was there…or so he thought. He wiped his lips off like he'd done previously, red faced and breathing heavily like before. He looked up and down the hall one more time before walking off.

Chad waited a minute or two longer…but no one came out of the room… He waited an extra minute, and when no one came out, he marched right up to the door and threw it open…

No one was there…

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he took a step into the room. There were some shelves attached to the back wall with various items stocked on them. There were some stacks of paper lined against the wall to the left, and a small table with cleaning supplies to his right. In the back right corner there was a mop basket and with a mop sticking out of it, and an old black rain coat hanging off the handle. He squinted, but there was no one there…how did they manage to swing that one? He shook his head, trying to figure out how they both snuck out as he shut the door and walked off.

A minute later the old black rain coat hanging off the mop handle started to move. A hand appeared from behind it, pushing it to the side. From behind it stepped Sharpay. She took a few steps forward, fixing her hard and smoothing out her clothes before stepping out of the room.

'Boy,' she thought to herself, 'It was a good thing I decided to wear my black boots today…'

The final bell of the day had rung and the halls filled with students all rushing to go home and study for their next day's final.

Gabriella Montez stood sullenly by her open locker, just staring at the books she would need for the next day. She sighed as she looked around at the students bustling around her. Her gaze landed on Troy, she smiled softly to herself as she watched him open his locker…but her smile faded when a small piece of paper fluttered out of it.

She watched as he bent down to retrieve it, eyes moving quickly as he read the short note. He glanced up; looking around the hall to make sure no one had seen him. Gabriella faced her locker quickly. A few moments later she looked back to see him shut his locker and walk quickly down the hall.

She took a step away from her locker ready to follow him and find out once and for all what was going on…but then…she stopped. Her gaze lingered on him as she watched him go waiting till he was out of sight before turning back to her locker. She took out her Spanish book, placing it gently in her backpack before heading off to meet the gang before play.

Ms. Darbus gave each of the cast member fifteen minutes to get to the auditorium before she called for practice to start. That gave Chad just enough time to round together Kelsi, Jason, Zeke, and Ryan and tell them what he'd learned.

Once they were all together he told them about Troy disappearing during 4th and sometimes 5th period everyday for about three weeks. He also told them about how he'd been hanging out with someone for pretty much the same amount of time…not getting home until late. He then went on to tell them about his weekend in New York…with a girl…and one hotel room…

Their eyes had widened at that part, thinking the same thoughts Chad had…(A/N – man they all have dirty minds) He told them that he thought Troy had been cheating on Gabriella, probably around those three weeks, and that was why he broke up with her. They all nodded in agreement and were about to discuss what to do next when Kelsi noticed it was time to head off to play, tomorrow was their first performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

They all gathered around Chad's locker as soon as they could. They figured the hallway would be the best place to meet, no one trying to eavesdrop on their conversation…oh how wrong they were…

As soon as they walked off a locker slammed near the ground. A girl was crouched there, having just gotten her books, and hearing the juiciest gossip that had ever been produced in that school. She immediately sat on the ground, taking out her cell phone and texting away all that she had heard…

A/N – Don't you hate how fast rumors can spread? 1 person calls 2 friends and they call 2 friends and they call 2 friends and pretty soon you have a web of the worst game of telephone ever played! I wonder how bad these rumors will get?

Next chapter will probably be about the rumors…duh…and Troy and Sharpay's reaction to them…even though no one knows it's Sharpay…yet…

Muwahahahaha…mine is an evil laugh…


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

A/N – It may take me a while to update…having some problems with my roommate…she's a god damn bitch who purposely excludes me from group happenings…among other issues

But I'll try to update as much as possible :)

On to the story:

Troy Bolton walked into school the next day, and all eyes were on him…normally he'd be fine with that…but that usually only happened during the season after he'd won a game or two…but the season was over so what were they staring at?

And why were some people glaring at him?

He looked around to see nearly everyone in the hall looking at him like he'd either grown two heads or was some horrible guy who had kicked a puppy. Those who weren't looking at him were quickly surrounded by people whispering something that made them look at him.

"…all weekend…" he'd heard someone mutter. He spun around quickly trying to find who had said that…but it was nearly impossible to pin point who said what in a hall of whispering students.

"…one room…" someone else has said. He looked at the crowds that parted for him, much like they usually did for Sharpay.

He raised an eyebrow at their remarks. They made no sense? What was everyone talking about?

He shook his head, trying to ignore the remarks as he opened his locker. A few dozen pieces of paper fell out of it…some with phone numbers…some with hideous comments…which just served to make him all the more confused.

"…did you hear?" That particular saying stood out as the most common one as he got out his books.

Two girls just then, leaned against the wall on the other side of his open locker, blocking his face from them. "…isn't it gross?" one had finished asking.

"Yeah, well, I heard he paid a hooker to spend the weekend with him…" the other replied.

"No!" the first one exclaimed in disbelief, "A hooker? Bolton has way too much class to go for a hooker…maybe it was one of the sluts from school!"

Troy's eyes widened as he heard that. He slammed his locker shut before turning and walking quickly down the hall.

"…in New York…"

"…what happens in New York…"

"…one bed…"

"…stays in New York…"

"…a prostitute…"

"…well, it followed him home…"

Troy's eyes widened more as he finally realized what everyone was talking about. Somehow they had found out that he had gone to New York with a girl over the three day weekend. But how they found out…and how it escalated from seeing a Broadway play with one girl from school to he'd paid a hooker to sleep with him all weekend was beyond him.

He shook his head, as he entered the empty homeroom, people could come up with some pretty crazy ideas. The mutterings and whispers didn't really bother him that much, he knew they weren't true so what did it matter if no one else did…

But then Sharpay rushed in. Troy looked up and immediately knew something was wrong, she looked close to tears.

"Sharpay!" he exclaimed nearly jumping out of his seat. She shook her head, signaling for him not to; people were still passing by the door. She took a seat next to him as he leaned down towards his back pack and whispered, "What's wrong?"

She looked at him incredulously, "Have you not heard what people are saying about you?"

He nodded, "Hey," he whispered soothingly, "It doesn't bother me…I'm fine…"

She nodded, looking at the front of the room for a moment before turning back to him, definite tears in her eyes, "They're calling me a hooker! And a prostitute and a…a…I don't even want to know what else!"

His eyes widened, he hadn't thought that their words would affect her…they weren't directed at her. "Sharpay, they don't know that it's you."

She looked away, "It still hurts," she muttered, "They think you spent the weekend with a whore…and you spent it with me…so that would make me a whore in their eyes!"

"No it doesn't!" he almost yelled, "Pay…if they knew it was you, they wouldn't be saying things like that."

She looked up and into his eyes, smiling sadly before looking down at her hands, "Yes…" she whispered, "…they would…"

"Pay…" he started, but she refused to even look at him. He glanced up, people were heading for the room, the warning bell had just rung.

He sighed before sitting back in his seat…he'd have to do something about those rumors…If not for him, then for Sharpay…

"Troy!" A voice called from down the hall.

Troy inwardly groaned before turning to face his father. "Dad," he said simply. All day long people had been throwing him crude looks, snide remarks, and attitudes. He was starting to get really sick of the way people kept hounding him.

"Troy what is going on?" he asked, he glanced up at the few people in the hall heading to their 6th period class, before pulling Troy into his office, "People have been talking about…your…exploits…in New York…"

"Dad!" Troy shouted, knowing it was the only way to get through to his father, "Nothing happened in New York. People found out that I went there with Sharpay to see Wicked…but all they knew was that I went there with a girl on the weekend…you were a teenager once, you know how their minds work!"

Coach Bolton stared Troy in the eyes; the boy didn't even blink like he always did when he lied…he was telling the truth. He sighed, "Oh thank god…" he muttered, rubbing the bridge of his now, "I don't know _what_ I would have told your mother…"

Troy shook his head, "Can you help me get this rumor under control?" he asked, "Tell your classes that I went there with a family friend to see a Broadway musical."

"Family friend?" Coach asked, eyebrow arching.

"Well Sharpay is my friend…and you're my family…and you like her right?" he asked, something achen to fear in his eyes. He was terrified that his family wouldn't like her.

"We love her son," Coach assured him, patting him on the back and letting him leave the office before he went to go round up the troops and explain some things.

Troy had tried to get Sharpay to talk more to him all day…but she barely said two words to him after homeroom. During basketball she kept herself focused on the game no matter how much he talked and apologized to her. At lunch, she was no where to be found and Troy ended up eating his sandwich alone in his hideout.

He saw her just after the last bell had rung, she was at her locker the perfect portrayal of the Ice Queen…but with just a hint of sadness that only Troy could detect. He sighed, he'd have to do something now or else he'd have Sharpay made at him till play the next day. They weren't supposed to go to play right after school that day, but at 6 to get prepared for the show at 7. Troy couldn't stand the thought of Sharpay being made at him even another minute.

He slammed his locker and quickly walked to the end of the hallway, turning abruptly to face his peers…who were all watching him intently. "Everyone may I have your attention please!" he shouted, immediately the whispers quieted, Sharpay looked up, "You have been misinformed…" Once he was sure that he had their attention he continued, "There was no prostitute, there was no hooker, there was no _one_ bed…there was a family friend, a trip to New York, and a Broadway musical…now…if you'll please…shut the hell up!" He dropped his arms that he had been holding up to keep their attention on him. His gaze floated over Sharpay who was smiling softly at him from behind her locker.

He bowed extravagantly and, with that, turned and walked right out of the school.

He wasn't sure if his little speech had done the trick, but at least he cleared up a few things. Their view of him would never be the same, but at least they got to see the whole picture instead of what they heard from a friend's friend's friend.

He was nervous though…later on as he stood in the dressing room…that perhaps he had imagined the smile from Sharpay. He saw her…she looked gorgeous in her dress…her toga to be exact, but still…she had yet to speak to him.

He went on when his cue came up and left when he was supposed to. He stepped immediately into the chorus room but didn't see Sharpay anywhere.

He made a brief mention under his breath that he was going to get Sharpay before she missed her cue. But before he stepped into the hall he grabbed something from his backpack.

She was right there, just outside the door in the empty hall, leaning against the wall.

She looked up when she saw Troy approaching her. She looked down; she was so ashamed of the way she had acted towards him. She'd blamed him for everything that people were saying, even though she knew that they didn't know she was the one he'd gone to New York with…but still in her mind she'd connected rumored girl he'd gone to NY with, with her, the actual girl he'd gone to NY with.

She looked up slightly, when she felt Troy take her hand. He opened it and placed a small white daisy…her favorite flower…

She looked up at him as he closed her hand around the flower and smiled softly. He smiled as well, leaning down to give her a soft kiss. He pulled back after a moment or two, "I'm sorry," he whispered, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry too," she replied.

He pulled her close giving her a gentle, loving hug, before taking her hand and leading her back to the chorus room, letting go of her hand before they entered.

A second later a member of stage crew ran from the stage, telling Sharpay she was on soon. Flower clutched in her hand, she ran with the freshman around the set and came in just when she was supposed to, fiddling with her daisy as she delivered her love struck lines.

A/N – Next chapter, not sure when I'll be able to write it…probably tomorrow afternoon, I have errands and class…and possibly a movie…but when I do…boy oh boy will I love writing it. Next chapter – The gang discovers just who Troy gave up Gabriella for… tee hee hee! -


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

The next day was nearly the best day that Troy had had yet…not counting last Saturday when he and Sharpay finally got their feelings out in the open. He and Sharpay had met bright and early, sneaking her out of the house right under Ryan's nose. They went to IHOP to get some breakfast, which Troy insisted on paying for, before heading out to the Children's hospital and hour early. Troy had come up with a great idea for that day, which would entertain the kids as well as get them both pumped up for play that night. Darbus always stressed the lazy two, how you get through a really great performance and then the second time you have to do it…right before the last day…you get sloppy because you've already done it.

Troy managed to find a Halloween costume he had from last year, he, Chad, Zeke, and Jason had gone to the school's costume party as the four musketeers. With a few minor adjustments and some slight tweaking here and there…Troy was now Prince Troy! He and Sharpay were going to act out a fairy tale instead of just reading it out to the kids…they'd get to see it instead of hear it. Sharpay was so excited to try it out…especially with Troy as her prince…and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

They did read a few more tales to the kids; they had only gone over one story because they hadn't known if the children would like it very much. And pretty soon it was time for them to head out and grab some lunch before Sharpay's soccer and singing practice, both of which went by relatively well.

They went to the park after her singing lesson, having a make shift picnic…well, eating bagged dinners at the picnic bench area. They got some ice cream just after at the ice cream hut near the park's lake and gobbled it up in five minutes, laughing at each other as brain freezes took their toll. Once the brain freezes passed, they realized that eating chocolate ice cream probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. They had to project in a few hours and the chocolate would coat their throats…

But they didn't really care, they just spent the next hour and a half walking around the huge lake, holding hands and talking about nothing in particular…until it was time to head to the school.

They made it there before any of their friends…which was a good thing for them because they both arrived in Sharpay's car. They headed into the chorus room turned dressing room and went their separate ways…Troy going over his lines and Sharpay to talk with Ms. Darbus.

The cast had made sure that no one slacked off the entire time they were on stage, rewarding themselves with a cast party at one Dutch's house, he was a senior. Everyone went…which didn't make it hard at all for Sharpay and Troy to slip off once everyone left to head over. No one would notice them not being there, there were a lot of people going. The cast, the cast's friends, back stage, back stage's friends, and some other random people that no one knew.

Troy held the front door to the Evan's house open for Sharpay as soon as she unlocked it, they were laughing hysterically at an inside joke. Sharpay threw her stuff down on the stairs, before leading Troy to their entertainment room down the hall. It was really dark outside, the forecasts had been calling for a thunderstorm all day and it finally looked like it was going to happen.

Already sounds of thunder could be heard as Troy plopped down on the couch in front of a big screen TV while Sharpay wandered over to the DVD shelf.

"So…what do you want to watch?" Sharpay asked, glancing over at him.

He smiled, "I don't know, anything's good with me."

Sharpay smiled, she'd been hoping he'd say that. She pulled out a black DVD case, opening it up and plopping it into the TV. She sat back down by Troy, who wrapped an arm around her, pulling her to him, as the movie's main menu came up.

"The Mummy?" Troy asked, looking at her…he'd expected her to pick a chick flick like the Notebook or something.

She nodded, leaning into him, "The guys are so hott in that movie."

"Not hotter than me I hope," he said trying to sound offended.

She peeked up at him, "No one is hotter than you," she reaffirmed, giving him a soft kiss on the lips.

But Troy caught her and deepened it, pulling away a minute or two later. "You ready for the movie?" he asked, reaching over to pick up the remote.

"Huh?" she asked still in a daze from the kiss, "Whah?"

Troy laughed inwardly; he loved it when he had that affect on her.

"You know," he said starting the movie, "The Mummy…with those hott guys?"

Sharpay shook her head, "Forget that," she said, pulling him towards her once again.

And that was how the majority of the night was spent, with two young teenagers in love and a movie barely watched…

Troy jolted away at the sound of thunder booming. He looked down; he was lying on his back across the couch, Sharpay sleeping half on him and the couch with her head resting on his chest. He smiled softly, looking out side to see it rain pouring in sheets. He glanced back up at the screen, the movie was just coming to an end and soon the credits would roll.

He looked back down at Sharpay, brushing a piece of hair away from her face so it wouldn't wake her. He let out a sigh, wrapping his arms more tightly around her. He thought back to the past four weeks, remembering all the times he'd had with her, all the jokes and the laughs they'd shared.

His memories shifted as he thought of how much she meant to him. When he had gone out with Gabriella, when she had refused to talk to him…he'd been distracted, not really feeling up to basketball, and slightly annoyed that she kept avoiding him. But with Sharpay…when she didn't speak to him, just for those few hours of school and before play…all he could think about was how to make it up to her. He couldn't concentrate in any of his classes, all day he couldn't focus…not even after the teachers hounded him to pay attention; he just kept thinking of the look in Sharpay's eyes when she'd come into homeroom…

He hadn't eaten lunch, taking one bite out of his sandwich before throwing it out…he hadn't even eaten dinner, but it didn't matter to him. He hadn't put his heart into the b-ball game with Sharpay, hoping that he could let her win and make her feel better but she didn't put her all into it either. He barely spoke to anyone...anyone…not even the teachers when they asked him a question…He just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened and how angry he was with himself for being the cause of Sharpay's hurt. He was even willing to make a fool out of himself to get her to smile for him again, he did make a fool out of himself…in front of nearly the entire school…but it was all worth it because she _did_ smile, even if it was a small one…

He hugged her closer to him, those few hours when she wouldn't speak were the worst hours of his life. The whole day he'd felt this weird sort of pressure inside him…a hole almost, like something was missing…her smile, her laugh was all it took to fill up the hole and lessen the pressure… but…whenever he wasn't near her, the pressure was there, in the back of his mind…sometimes…sometimes he even felt like he couldn't breathe unless she was there with him…near him…it was like she was his air…with out her he'd…

He didn't know.

He tightened his arm around her waist; closing his eyes, feeling sleep creep up on him as he breathed in her scent…he truly did love her…

The storm raged on outside, forcing six figures to race towards the house in hopes of making it with out getting too soaked. One of the boys ran to the front door holding an umbrella up, keeping him and a girl from getting wetter then they already were. He handed the umbrella to the girl, digging in his pockets and fiddling with the keys he pulled out till he found the right one. He opened the door, rushing inside before ushering everyone else in.

Gabriella handed the umbrella back to Ryan as she stepped as side to avoid getting wet as Taylor and Kelsi shut their umbrellas and Chad, Jason, and Zeke shook off their coats.

She looked around, the house was huge! There was a stair case leading to a second floor, though from the outside it looked like there could have been another one on top of that. Her eyebrows furrowed when a noise reached her ears…it sounded like a buzzing noise…coming from down the hall. Naturally curious in her scientific nature, she took a few steps down the hall knowing she was heading in the right direction when the noise got louder.

She saw that the door to a room at the end of the hall was partially open, just a crack, and that they noise was coming from the other side. She gently pushed the door open, seeing that the buzzing was static from the TV that had been left on. She took a step into the room, looking for the remote to shut the TV off when she spotted it on a coffee table just in front of a couch.

She took a step forward but stopped, her mouth dropping open unconsciously as she took in the sight before her.

Troy was lying on the couch, on his back, with his arms wrapped around none other than Sharpay Evans! She was practically lying on top of him!

But for some reason the most shocking thing for Gabriella was not seeing her boyfriend…ex-boyfriend lying on a couch with the Ice Queen laying on top of him…it was what Sharpay was wearing that got to her. She was wearing a pair of torn jeans that the Sharpay Evans she knew would not be caught dead in, and a plain green tank top…not a pink sparkly one.

They shifted in their sleep and Gabriella watched as Troy tightened his hold on Sharpay, a soft smile on their faces. She shut her mouth then; smiling softly at them…they must care about each other deeply…

"Hey!" She heard a voice exclaim from the door, she turned to see Ryan make his way in,

"Why's the TV on?" he asked, stepping in and picking up the remote. He shut the TV off, turning to face Gabriella, cocking his head to the side when he noticed she wasn't even looking at him. He followed her gaze only to see…his sister and the guy she despised asleep on the couch!?!

His eye widened in shock and he was pretty sure that if he'd been drinking or eating something right now he'd have either choked on it or spit it out. His mouth dropped open…he couldn't move…he didn't understand...what was going on?

"What's wrong?" he heard someone ask from the door way. He barely looked up as Chad, Zeke, Jason, and Kelsi entered the room and over to where he was standing…just before seeing what he was seeing…and going through the same reactions…

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Taylor shrieked coming in a few seconds after them to see Troy and…Sharpay (!)…asleep on the couch…well…they were asleep…

Troy and Sharpay jerked awake as soon as Taylor had shouted. They looked around at everyone staring at them before scrambling up knowing that their secret was out.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!?" Taylor shouted at them, hands on her hips, anger flashing though her eyes.

"We were watching a movie," Sharpay said. Gabriella's eyes narrowed slightly…since when did Sharpay speak and not snap?

"And we fell asleep," Troy finished. He slipped his hand into Sharpay's, knowing that she was terrified at that moment of what was about to happen.

Unfortunately, this action didn't go unnoticed by Taylor…

"So she's the two bit hussy you fucked in New York?" Taylor bit out incredulously.

"Taylor!" Gabriella shouted, completely scandalized that her friend would say such a thing.

Sharpay turned at that and quickly fled the room, followed quickly by Troy who threw a glare over his shoulder at everyone.

He managed to catch up to her just as she opened the front door…where she was about to go…Troy didn't know…

He turned her to face him as she glared at him, "Sharpay…" he started, reaching out for her, she stepped back, "She didn't mean it."

"Who the hell do you think you're kidding Troy?" she asked, and Troy knew she was only glaring, using her anger to try to postpone her tears.

"She's just pissed because I broke up with her best friend and didn't tell her boy friend anything about why," he said, he reached out, this time managing to seize her hands.

"No!" Sharpay answered, "She's just saying what she thinks of me for once."

"Hey!" Troy said, letting go of one of her hands to cup her cheek. She turned away, but Troy gently made her look at him, "Hey…look…" she looked at him, "Taylor…her opinion of you doesn't matter at all. Okay? The only people who have any right to make an opinion of you are Ryan and…"

"He called me a bitch," she said, a tear slowly falling from her eye.

"He's not the sharpest pencil in the case," Troy said, trying to get a laugh out of her as he brushed the tear away with his thumb, "You know that…" She let out a low chuckle, "The only people are Ryan and me…and I could never think of you like that…"

Sharpay looked down, but Troy brought her gaze back to him. "Do you remember what I told you in New York? Just after I kissed you after we sang?"

She smiled guiltily and looked at his ear instead of his eyes, "Not really…" she started, "I was just trying to keep from jumping on you till we go back to the room…"

He laughed at that, getting a small laugh from her as well, "Well, let me tell you…" And with that he went on to list everything he loved about her and then some. When he finished a good few minutes later, Sharpay was smiling, and crying freely. He reached out and pulled her to him, enveloping her into the gentlest, most loving embrace he could muster. He held her to him for a few moments more, just to reemphasize how much he cared about her.

"Taylor doesn't know you," he whispered as he pulled back slowly, "I do…" he leaned in and kissed her softly. "I love you."

She smiled more, "I love you too," she looked around the house and down at the ground, there were a few backpacks and duffle bags by the closet…Ryan must have invited everyone to stay the night. "Can we…can we go somewhere?" she asked, she most definitely didn't want to be in the same house as everyone.

He looked down and noticed the bags as well, he nodded, "Yeah, you can stay at my house tonight." He'd asked her if she needed to get anything, but she had replied no, she always kept a spare change of clothes in her duffle bag along with a few toiletries. She'd said that she never knew how dirty she'd get during a practice or if she'd have to 'freshen' up before seeing people from school.

She took a step to the stairs, noticing that Troy had yet to let go of her hand, before grabbing her duffle bag and turning to him. He opened the door, knowing not to offer her an umbrella…she loved the rain…and with that…they ran out to his car, shutting the door behind them…

Gabriella sighed as she took a step towards the door to the hallway. She leaned against the door frame watching Troy talk to Sharpay by the front door. She looked back at her friends, they were either arguing against Taylor's attitude and choice of words or for her defense of a friend. It was a pretty heated one. Chad, Taylor and Jason were arguing against Ryan, Zeke, and Kelsi. It was getting really annoying, she'd gotten over the break up…at least mostly…and she was happy that Troy had found someone new…someone he really cared deeply about…now if only her friends would see that…

"…_not that bad…"_

She looked over at Troy and Sharpay, she kept trying to look away but Troy kept forcing her to look at him.

"…_it's Sharpay!"_

Gabriella tilted her head, wishing she could hear what Troy was saying. Whatever it was, it was calming her down.

"…_way out of line…" _

She frowned as she saw Troy pull her into a hug…it wasn't a frown at the hug…it was a frown at Sharpay's tears…

"…_frigid bitch…"_

…she had never seen the girl cry like that before…she had never seen much emotion from her before…

"…_don't know her…"_

…why hadn't she ever seen Sharpay like that? Was she hiding something? Was there really more to Sharpay Evans than meets the eye?

"…_Ice Queen…"_

She watched as they pulled away from each other, Troy kissed her softly before Sharpay looked around the room. She said something to Troy and he nodded. She turned and picked up something from the stairs…

"…_and Troy…"_

She smiled softly as Sharpay and Troy ran out side, the door shutting behind them…

"…_Gabriella…"_

"Guys!" Gabriella shouted, turning to face them, "Enough!"

They all stared at her as if she had gone off the deep end. She looked at each of them, tears filling her eyes, she really couldn't stand much more of their arguing, "Just stop…"

Taylor glared at Ryan as if it were his fault his sister was Troy's new beau, before heading over to Gabriella and enveloping her in a sisterly hug.

"Yeah…" Kelsi murmured softly, "Why don't we just forget this for now and watch the movie like we planned?"

Everyone agreed, though reluctantly, and settled down on the couch and floor to watch The Notebook…

A/N – The gang knows…how long will it take before the rest of the cast knows? Before the school knows


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Troy and Sharpay had avoided everyone the next day, Sunday, the last day of play. They went to Sharpay's volunteering and lessons. She was allowed to skip her acting lessons since the play was that night, though her acting coach said he'd be in the audience watching and evaluating her.

They went to the school at 7:10; Troy drove them both, since Sharpay hadn't wanted to go home at all. They had decided that, since the whole gang knew, it would only be a matter of time before the rest of the cast…and then the school knew…especially with Taylor's dislike of Sharpay.

They paused just outside the doors to the chorus room, "Ready?" Troy asked, holding out his hand.

"No," Sharpay said, taking his hand anyway.

He laced their fingers, smiling softly at her before opening the door for them both to walk in.

As soon as the door shut behind them and the noise drew some attention, Troy and Sharpay were the object of almost everyone's gaze. The cast members, and even some crew members, looked from the both of them, to their intertwined hands, to their friends, and back to the couple…Those who weren't looking were soon nudged and their attention directed at the two.

Sharpay looked up at Troy, who just smiled back down at her before leading her through the chorus room and out back stage so they could get their costumes from the prop room. As soon as the door that connected the chorus room and back stage shut, whispers ensued.

The whispering didn't cease, not even when Troy and Sharpay entered the room once again clad in their costumes to get their make up ready for the stage. The whispers didn't cease even as the stage crews rushed around to get ready. The whispers continued even as they were told that the doors would be opening and people would be taking their seats.

The whispers only stopped when Ms. Darbus entered the room to give the cast their last little pow wow before their final performance. She had talked of how proud she was of all their hard work and dedication, how far they had come in the field of acting, growing from seeds that didn't know the difference between stage left and stage right to beautiful flowers that could sprout crocodile tears upon command.

Ryan then led his fellow cast member in their traditional preshow cheer. They all crowded into a circle with their hands in, jumping from foot to foot while Ryan called out the words.

"What time is it?" he called.

"Game time!" The group replied.

"What time is it?" he repeated.

"Game time!" They shouted.

"All the dogs in the house!"

"Who who who who!"

"All the dogs in the house!"

"Who who who who!"

"WHOAH!" he shouted, pushing the hands down, "GAY!" They shouted throwing their arms up.

They started laughing, each thinking how stupid the cheer was, but they would do it regardless. It was something the first Drama Club members had made up, even though their school was the Wild _Cats_, they felt like they being unique and made the cheer all the dogs in the house instead of all the cats in the house.

They cast members started to disperse, heading out to take their places, when Ms. Darbus called out, "Mr. Bolton, Miss Evans!"

Troy and Sharpay turned and headed back towards Ms. Darbus, their hands still locked together. "Yes, Ms. Darbus?" Sharpay asked.

She sighed looking at the two of them, "Now, I know you two may not have the strongest feelings for each other…" she started. They looked down at their interlocked hands; obviously she hadn't noticed them yet. "But do try to make your kiss seem more…passionate…than you've been doing." She had blocked Demetrius and Helena's kiss, the last one, their only one, to be the ending of the play. As soon as they broke apart, the curtains were supposed to shut and the lights fade as Puck made his speech. Once he'd finished, Oberon and Titania were to appear and walk along outside the curtain, delivering their last lines before disappearing on the other side, when Puck would appear from where the curtain closed to deliver his last lines as well. So far, that kiss had been the most awkward, short, peckish kiss that she had seen in her many years in the theatre.

They looked at each other; smiling gently as Darbus walked away…if she wanted passion…they'd give her passion…

Jason, Kelsi, Ryan, Gabriella, Troy, and Sharpay walked up from the center of the back of the stage when Jason stopped and turned to his friends, "The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn as much as we this night have overwatch'd. This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled the heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. A fortnight hold we this solemnity, in nightly revels and new jollity." With that he kissed Kelsi's hand and walked off stage right while Ryan waggled his eyebrows at Gabriella before pulling her off stage left. Troy and Sharpay took a few shy steps forward to center stage. Sharpay gave him an impish look before starting to walk to her right. Troy tugged her arm, pulling her back to him before giving her one of the most passionate, fiery, loving, fervent, kisses that she had ever had, stage or not. She responded to it immediately, quickly forgetting that they were on stage in front of nearly the entire school. The mouths of the students dropped open…even they could tell that the kiss had gone from stage kiss to real one. Gabriella stood off stage, watching the two, Troy and she _never_ had passion like that…she smiled softly to herself…

Unfortunately, the curtain pullers weren't as happy. They looked at each other nervously across the stage. What were they supposed to do? They were supposed to wait for the couple to part but at the rate they were going, they doubted that Troy and Sharpay would stop even to come up for air. Troy's hands wandered over her body and Sharpay gave a little groan which cut the last straw for the curtain pullers. They pulled those curtains closed so fast half the crew thought that they must have gotten rope burn.

Dutch, who had been watching all this occur, quickly snapped out of his shock at seeing them go at it in the middle of the stage to deliver his lines. Chad and Taylor walked across in front of the curtains and exited right when Puck was supposed to come on. Dutch had to literally push the two away so that he could get past them to deliver his lines. But the push was enough to startle them back into the conscious world.

One of the straps to Sharpay's toga had slipped…or was pushed…off. She quickly pushed it up, before looking back up at Troy who was working on reattaching his make shift belt. He leaned forward giving her a quick kiss as they were rushed off the stage by crew to get ready for curtain call.

The fairies came out first, followed by some minor characters like the actors and Hermia's father, then came Jason and Kelsi, Dutch and Zeke, Chad and Taylor, Gabriella and Ryan, and finally Troy and Sharpay…

But instead of bowing like they had rehearsed, Troy grabbed Sharpay's arm, pulled her to him, dipped her, and kissed her…not as passionately as before…but enough to tell the audience that their previous kiss had not just been some really great acting…

The cast did their final bows, some throwing glares at Troy and Sharpay, before running off stage and down the hall to meet their friends and family who had come to see the play.

Troy's parents had gone the day before, and Sharpay's father hadn't been able to go period…he was doing some court thing in Fiji. So both of them took advantage of the emptiness of the dressing rooms to get changed quickly and put their stuff away. They snuck out while everyone else was by the main doors. They quietly crept out the back doors of the chorus hallway. Sharpay wanted to get home early and get some rest for the next day, she and Troy had stayed up late talking and running lines and…hmm…practicing their final scene…over…and over…and over…again until it was perfect. After all, practice makes perfect, right?

But their escape didn't go unnoticed however. One of the school's cheerleaders, a sophomore saw them leave and turned to her friends.

"What is going on with Troy and Sharpay?" she asked. The students were utterly, utterly confused as to what _was_ going on between the two.

"You mean you haven't heard?" Taylor said mimicking their air headedness, "Like Troy Bolton, the hottie super bomb, he's, like, dating Sharpay the Ice Bitch."

The cheerleaders let out a unanimous gasp before turning to talk amongst themselves. One or two broke off and ran to their friends to tell what they had heard. This time the rumor couldn't be wrong…they'd heard the whole story…

A/N – Just so you know, that little cheer that they did was something my school actually did before the plays. It was so stupid but you got to love it. Next chapter…school for Sharpay and Troy…rumors? Comments? Snide remarks? I think so…


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

A/N – This chapter may be a little short, but the next two will probably be average length…only two chappys left tear

Sharpay walked into school the next day, a proud smirk on her face. The play had been excellent the night before and she was expecting praises from everyone she passed. She stopped before the main doors, checking herself off. Her high heeled pink shoes were speckled with sparkles (A/N – wow, try saying that 10x fast, speckled with sparkles), she had on a pink and white sleeveless tunic dress that went to her mid thigh with neon pink shin length designer pants under it. She had on a white shrug and carried her white coach bag hanging around her elbow. She also decided to wear some pink pearls and her white hat to complete the out fit. She checked her straightened hair, perfect…as it should look if you've spent 45 minutes straightening the damn thing!

She took a deep breath, claming herself before she pulled open the doors and briskly walked into the building. Her smirk quickly faded as she noticed the not friendly looks thrown her way…some were even, well, glaring at her as she passed.

Unfortunately for Sharpay, she wasn't as well liked as Troy was, no one even bothered to keep their voices hushed as she walked towards her locker.

"She's such a bitch!" Someone remarked.

"I know, can you believe she made Troy break up with Gabriella?"

"That is so cruel!"

"Couldn't she see they loved each other?"

"I wonder what she did?"

"Egh, I don't even want to know!"

"I bet she slept with him!"

"I bet she did more than that, the hoe…"

"…she must have done something…worth his while…"

"…and they were all alone in New York!"

"…just one bed!"

Sharpay swallowed hard as she reached her locker. Once she opened it, hundreds of notes fell out…none of them good. The words bitch, whore, skank, slut, hoe, and freak, jumped out at her, among some others she didn't know. She grabbed her books, slamming her locker shut before making her way down the hall as fast as her heels would let her…which wasn't fast enough to escape most of the conversations that leapt out at her.

"…must have got him drunk…"

"…course she did, who would want her?"

"…seduced him…"

"…stalked him…"

"…maybe she cast a love spell on him…"

"…wouldn't surprise me…"

"…witch with a capital B…"

She ran into homeroom, stopping in the doorway seeing some students already there, pointing and laughing at her. She backed away slowly, before taking off down the hall, tears in her eyes.

"Sharpay!" she heard a voice call, she knew it was Troy but she kept running.

He caught up with her; of course, one can not run very fast in high heels.

"Pay!" he shouted, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"Let me go Troy!" she shouted, trying to break her way free.

"Are you ok?" he asked, realizing only after he'd asked how stupid it sounded.

"What do you think?" she practically spat.

Her shoulders started to shake, and he knew that she was starting to cry. He looked around, people were staring at them, those on either side of him seemed to be in shock that the Ice Queen could cry. He shook his head at them before pulling Sharpay with him up the nearest stair case. There were less people on the second floor of the school, which made it easier for Troy to get Sharpay to his secret hide out to talk. He was sure that word would get to Ms. Darbus and she'd understand why they'd both not been in homeroom.

As soon as he sat her down on their bench, she wrapped her arms around him and cried into his chest. There was nothing Troy could do but to wrap his arms around her as well, rocking her back and forth and muttering soothing words in her ear.

"I'm so sorry Pay," he whispered to her as soon as her tears subsided

She shook her head, "It wasn't your fault." She took a shaky breath, "People were bound to find out sooner or later."

He shook _his_ head this time, "But I wish we could have been the ones to tell them."

"They still would have thought the same things," she said sitting back, but still leaning against him. It was like he was her rock, her wall, the thing that would always be there to support her and offer support.

They sat in silence for a moment or two before Troy spoke again, "I…I know a way where they could change their minds…"

She looked at him, "How?"

"Tell them," he said simply, "tell them what you're really like, prove to them that you're _not_ an ice queen, that you're _not _a bitch."

"I can't," she said shaking her head, "They'll think I'm acting."

"Not if I back you up," he said, starting to get excited about the idea of people not commenting on Sharpay and her not having to act like she had a heart of stone. In all honesty, he was afraid that she would start to become what she was acting as well. "I've spent more time with you then they have, they'll have to believe me."

She kept shaking her head, "They'll think I put you up to it."

"Then we'll get Ryan to help."

"He's not speaking to me," she sighed, "And besides, we're not exactly on friendly, helping, terms right now…and he's my brother, of course he would say something like that."

Troy racked his brain trying to come up with something that would help prove to the students what Sharpay was really liked, "We'll get pictures, signatures,"

"We can always fake them and forge them."

"Must you be so pessimistic?" he asked.

"Sorry," she bowed her head, "I just…I'm scared…"

"Of what?" he questioned, tilting her head to look at him.

"Of what they'll think of me after that…"

"I'll be with you every step of the way," he said, smiling softly at her.

She smiled too, she was actually starting to like that idea…she had considered showing off her real personality for a few weeks now, but didn't quite know when…now was the best opportunity she'd get.

"Tomorrow." She said finally.

Troy nodded in acceptance as he heard the warning bell ring, "Are you…going to be alright for the rest of the day?"

She took a deep breath before nodding, "I'll see you 3rd period, and 4th, and 5th, and…7th?" she asked. That wouldn't be too bad…she could block out most of the comments…and then she'd see Troy and everything would be fine…it was really only 4 periods if you thought about it…and one was in a language that no one understood.

He nodded; he'd find a way to meet her 7th period, even if that meant he had to fake a ruptured appendix to do so.

A/N – Yay…two chappys left…next one…the reaction of the students and the gangs journey to find out if Sharpay is just acting in her 'new' personality.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Sharpay stood outside the main doors of the school the next day, nervous as ever. A hand slipped into hers as she looked up to see Troy standing beside her. He had picked her up for school and given her a ride so she wouldn't have to do this alone. She took a deep breath, and, like the day before, looked down at her attire. Today she was clad in a pair of old, worn, once white, tennis shoes, a pair of thin red Wild Cats sweatpants, and a white t-shirt with a red soccer logo that still fit her from when she played on the recreational team in the 4th grade. Her hair was naturally wavy, but pulled into a high ponytail.

"You look beautiful," he whispered in her ear before opening the door and holding it open as she walked in.

Everyone stared at her as she passed...shocked stares followed her…disbelieving stares even…but that…that Sharpay could handle. No one was saying anything…they were just…staring…

It wasn't until she reached her locker that the whispering started…but at least this time it was whispering so she couldn't really hear what they were saying.

She let out a breath as Troy leaned on the locker next to hers, talking with her in hushed tones, helping to keep the whispers from her ears. She grabbed her books, stuffing them quickly into her bag, just because she couldn't hear the whispers didn't mean that she wanted to stay where people were talking about her.

She quickly shut her locker, turning to head down the hall when she crashed into someone…the person's books and notebooks fell to the ground along with a few papers.

"I'm sorry," Sharpay said, kneeling down with the person to pick up the papers and some notebooks. She handed them out, looking up to see Gabriella kneeling before her holding the rest of her books and papers.

Gabriella shut her mouth, which had been hanging open, "Thanks," she squeaked as she took her papers and note books from Sharpay.

Sharpay smiled softly, before standing. Everything was silence…no one moved an inch…for a few moments, Sharpay wasn't sure if anyone was breathing. She glanced around to see everyone staring at her with their jaws dropped much like Gabriella's had. She took a breath, before turning and walking down the hall with Troy…

The whispers came back as Sharpay left her Ms. Darbus' room during free period. She had told Troy in English that Darbus had wanted to speak with her so he said he'd be waiting in the theatre to have lunch with her. Their hide out had been invaded by a few people hoping to catch them going there.

Sharpay kept looking at her watch as Ms. Darbus praised her for her and Troy's performance until she finally let her go a few minutes before the bell rang. Sharpay nearly bolted out of the room, but she managed to calmly walk out and head to her locker…but the whispers were there…

"…think she is?" Sharpay heard as she turned the corner.

"Did you see her this morning?"

"What was she wearing?"

"What did she do? Roll out of bed…"

"...must have been torture to…"

"…and she gave her the books…"

"…said I'm sorry?!"

"…so stupid…"

"…thinks she can fool everyone…"

"…such a bitch…"

"…acting all sweet and innocent…"

"…fucked up in the head…"

"…it's all an act!"

Sharpay didn't bother to get her lunch, she just ran down the hall trying to get to the auditorium before the whispers could follow.

"…boo hoo hoo…"

"…look there she goes…"

"…such a loser…"

"…crying? Puh-lease…"

"…dish it…"

"…can't take it…"

She threw open the doors to the back stage of the auditorium, running right on stage and into Troy who had gone to see who had come in. She sank to her knees as Troy wrapped his arms around her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Everyone…think it's an act…just like I said…" was all Troy was able to understand through her sobs.

His heart broke to see her so pained, "It's okay, it's okay…"

She shook her head, not able to speak. She had been through so much in the last month; Troy found out her secret, Ryan called her a bitch, she wasn't speaking to him, Ryan hated her, the school thought Troy went to NY with a hooker, they thought she'd forced Troy to break up with Gabriella, they'd made fun of her, they'd ridiculed her…she was just sick of it. She tried being nice but it just blew up in her face.

"Shhh…shhhh," Troy whispered rocking her back and forth.

He was the only good thing that came out of the whole mess…

"I tried…" she whispered after a few minutes, once her tears started to subside, "I really tried to show them…I did…"

"I know," Troy whispered, "I'm so sorry…if I hadn't suggested…"

Sharpay shook her head, "Then they wouldn't have even seen me…" she breathed deep, "I just wish…that they'd stop…"

"They will," Troy said, "Just think, there's only one day left of school. And next year, you can be yourself…"

Sharpay took a shuddered breath just thinking about next year, she'd be a senior without any friends, without any family, without any…

"And I'll be there with you," Troy said, sensing where her thoughts were heading. "I'll be at your lessons, at your practices, at your volunteering…at you games…" he trailed, bringing up the subject of her and sports.

She laughed, given enough time his mind would always go back to sports, "And I'll be at yours," she added, wiping her eyes.

"Promise?" he asked jokingly.

"Promise," she said. She was about to say something else when her stomach grumbled.

"Hungry?" Troy asked, laughing as he helped her stand up.

"Starved," she replied, "I skipped breakfast."

He smiled gently, "Well then," he said picking up his lunch and offering her his hand, "Shall we?"

She accepted, "We shall."

He started to walk off, "I think they should be out of our hide out by now…"

His next words were lost as the doors shut behind him.

There was a rustling by the curtains, a hand appeared, pushing it aside as six teen stepped onto the space of the stage. Gabriella, Taylor, Kelsi, Chad, Zeke, Jason, and Ryan all wandered on. They had been chilling in the chorus room when they heard the stage door swing open and someone crying…they had been shocked to discover it was Sharpay.

"How fake was that!" Taylor said, starting to pace the stage, "The Ice Queen crying? I can't believe Troy even fell for that." She paced more, continuing to utter harsh words against Sharpay as the gang's thoughts drifted.

Kelsi smiled sadly when she'd seen Sharpay cry that badly. She had never really thought that Sharpay was as mean as she pretended to be. She remembered a time when she had been working on a piece of music for the spring musical last year. She had been sitting behind the piano and ducked down when Ms. Darbus made her was quickly across the room, followed by Sharpay who had been arguing something with her. Kelsi had listened in and was completely floored to hear Sharpay arguing for the music that she had composed. Sharpay was telling Ms. Darbus that the music was great, one of the best pieces she thought Kelsi had ever written. But Ms. Darbus would have none of it.

Ryan frowned, he really felt bad about what he had said to Sharpay in anger nearly a month ago. He knew he'd really hurt her, he shouldn't have even let himself get so angry at her…it was just play…and he hadn't been that great of a brother to her, always ditching her to hang with the guys. He'd been just as shocked as everyone to learn that Sharpay had gone to New York during the three day break…he hadn't even known she was gone…which made him feel like crap. What kind of a brother doesn't even notice when his sister's missing?! She hadn't spoken to him in a while and it was really starting to get to him. They had never gone this long without speaking…not even when she'd accidentally ripped his blankie in two…not even then was he that mad that they hadn't talked for a month. The longest they had ever gone was two weeks. It sucked.

"God she is such a bitch!" Taylor exclaimed cutting through their thoughts.

"Yeah man," Chad replied, "She's a great actress. _I_ can't even cry like that…and I was the champ of the crocodile tears exercise."

"I don't think she was acting guys," Gabriella cut in. She was staring out at the empty seats rather than the group behind her.

Taylor scoffed, "Gabriella, she's an actress…that's what they do…act. She's arrogant and manipulative and…"

"And really affected by what people are saying about her." Gabriella finished for her. "Did you not here what _Troy_ said? She's doing something after school that he'd be there for…something about volunteering…"

"Right…" Chad started, sarcasm layering his words, "Like the Ice Queen would ever volunteer for anything is just cra…"

"Actually she does," Ryan said, cutting him off. "She volunteers a lot."

The group looked at him shock evident in their eyes.

"Since when?" Jason asked.

"A few years ago she started volunteering at a few places…for a few months now she pretty much volunteers everyday…"

There was silence for a moment when Taylor spoke, "Right, like I'll believe that load of bul…"

"I can prove it," Ryan said quickly, eyes lighting up at a way to help out his sister. "I'm pretty sure I remember where she volunteers today…I went with her a few times…"

And that was it…that was how you'd find seven people crammed into Ryan's 4 person black Saturn Ion after school that day. Ms. Darbus had called a meeting for Play members to watch a recording of Sunday's performance. They all ran to Ryan's car after that and watched from there as Troy and a sullen Sharpay made their way across the parking lot and into Troy's car. Ryan waited till they left the parking lot before following a good distance behind them. It wasn't that he wanted to follow them; it was just that he wasn't entirely sure that he remembered what Sharpay did on Tuesdays.

They managed to pull into the Food Pantry's parking lot just as Troy and Sharpay entered the building, which meant that they hadn't noticed the very noticeable, nice car pull in. Everyone rushed to get out of the car, not because they wanted to see what was going on…but because Zeke had tried his new bean burrito recipe for lunch…the results were…not flattering…

They crept up to the window, and, had anyone been looking, they would have seen seven heads pop up one right after the other. But no one was looking, so they were safe. They were also shocked to see Sharpay smiling as she and Troy started to package the food, moving around to the different shelves as if they had been there many times already and knew which shelves held what…which they had…

They kept watching, completely engrossed in what was going on that they barely noticed Troy and Sharpay heading towards them. They ducked down just as the two passed the window. They stayed there when they heard the door next to them open and the couple walk towards the parking lot. Ryan motioned for them to stay where they were even as Troy's car pulled out, heading down the street.

"Ryan!" Taylor shouted as they walked back to his car and piled in, "We lost them!"

"No, we didn't," Ryan remarked, starting the car and pulling out, "She's going to soccer."

"Soccer?" Zeke asked.

"Yeah," he replied, "I remembered she had soccer today when I saw her shirt."

They drove a few minutes in silence when Gabriella spoke up, "Where…where else does she volunteer?"

"Um…" he started, trying to remember it all as correctly as he could, "I know during the week, she goes to the nursing home, the daycare center, an orphaninch, the animal shelter, and, you know, the food pantry." His brows furrowed in thought, "I'm pretty sure that she volunteers at the soup kitchen and the children's hospital on the weekends."

"The children's hospital?" Taylor asked, for once not sounding sarcastic, but almost afraid of the answer.

"Yeah, she reads stories to the kids. Our mom, a nurse, used to do that sometimes when she was on duty…before she died…" Ryan looked out the window reading the street signs, "Here we go," he said finding the right one and turning down it. Everyone looked out to see the street they were on as if it were important…not noticing Taylor's mouth drop open in shock…

Ryan pulled across the street from the little league field that Sharpay and Troy were currently walking across. There was a man there, with a duffle bag waiting for them. They all pressed against the side of the car, knowing that they wouldn't be able to leave and watch what happened.

But they were a good distance where they could still watch the practice while not getting noticed by Sharpay and Troy. Sharpay was good…really good…probably even better than Jason, who was on the boys JV soccer team.

"Sports?" Chad asked Ryan as they watched Sharpay and her coach cool down.

"Um…Tennis, soccer, basketball…" The guys looked at him in awe; Sharpay could play b-ball? "And she helps teach a Karate class once a week," he finished, proud of himself that he remembered all that.

"Now what?" Jason asked as they watched Troy and Sharpay drive off.

"I'm not sure…" Ryan trailed as he followed them, "It's either tap or ballet."

It turned out that his second choice was the right choice. They pulled up across the street to see Troy standing outside of a dance studio watching as the ballet students began to stretch.

"So…she takes dance lessons?" Gabriella asked.

"Yeah," Ryan said, "Ballet, Tap, and…"

"Jazz?" Taylor asked, speaking for the first time in nearly an hour.

"No, she said it was boring," Ryan said laughing to himself, "She takes a hip hop class…and also takes singing, acting, and piano lessons…and gymnastics too."

The group shook their heads as they turned back to watch Sharpay and her classmates practice. They couldn't really see anything from across the street, but whenever someone glided by the window they could see them.

It was really late at night when they finally pulled up near the Evan's house. Ryan shut off the lights as he parked so that Troy, who was opening the door for Sharpay and taking her bag, wouldn't notice them.

"Wow…" Kelsi said softly, "She does a lot…"

Ryan nodded as they watched Troy walk Sharpay up to the front door, "She does all that and play. I overheard her on the phone once too; she wants to join some teams next year."

"Really?" Chad asked, Ryan nodded, "That's awesome."

"Yeah," Ryan agreed, "I still can't believe she does all this while balancing her school work." They stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate. "AP Chemistry, AP US History I, AP Pre. Calculus (A/N – a different class time than Taylor), AP English 11, and AP Latin III." He ticked off all the classes on his finger, earlier in the year it had been their tradition to memorize each other's classes so they could get to one another if they needed to.

Taylor and Gabriella's eyes widened in shock, they had never even known that Sharpay was taking more AP classes than just Chemistry, let alone all AP classes. 'Day-um!' They thought at the same time. And there they were, not willing to do a tenth of the things Sharpay was doing for the community because they thought that _they_ had too much work?

They waited until Troy got back to his car and drove off before they got out. They all lived relatively close by, so it wasn't bad for them to walk. They said their good byes, each leaving with a feeling that they had to do _something_ tomorrow…something to make things right…

A/N – What are they going to do? What will Sharpay think when she finds out they followed her? More importantly…what's Taylor's secret? Hmmm…find out next chapter...the final one…goodieness!


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Sharpay couldn't even muster a smile as she walked into school the next day with Troy. She was wearing a simply white sundress and white flip flops. The teachers were always lenient about the dress code on the last day of school; you could practically get away with anything as long as it was within reason.

Sharpay glanced up at Troy as she made her way to her locker; she still had to clean some things out. He smiled down at her, taking her hand and giving it a small kiss. She smiled gently, turning to open her locker.

A group of guys were just across the hall making face and pretending to kiss someone else's hands. Troy tried to ignore them by making small talk with Sharpay…but it was hard to block out when it's right in front of you.

He was about to go say something to them when Chad walked up to them. He shook his head and said something that Troy couldn't understand. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he watched the guys walk away down the hall. Chad turned to him, seeing Troy watching, he nodded to him. Troy, not understanding gave him an uncertain nod in return. Chad smiled and walked off down the hall, leaving Troy very confused as to what was going on.

Sharpay shut her locker door, taking her lock off it before turning to Troy. He smiled at her, taking her hand as they walked down the hall…

Sharpay was sitting by herself during Chemistry first period, not that anyone really sat with her to begin with. She was reading a small book she had brought with her to keep her occupied during class…completely unaware of the group of girls behind her silently laughing at her.

Gabriella looked up from the conversation she was having with Taylor and the Chemistry sub to see a group of girls pointing at Sharpay. She squinted as one girl got up, put her hand to her mouth, and spit something into it. Gabriella's eyes widened as she saw the girl make her way to an unsuspecting Sharpay.

She excused herself from the conversation and hurriedly made her way over to where Sharpay was sitting. "Hey Sharpay," she said, taking a seat next to her, glaring at the girl who had come inches away from putting gum in Sharpay's hair. "What are you reading?" she asked, as she girl went to the front of the room to throw out the gum…better to throw it out than keep it in your hand.

"Huh?" she asked, looking up to see Gabriella sitting next to her, "Oh…Hi…Gabriella…" she was completely confused now, "I'm just reading 'Red Gardenias'." (A/N – entirely made up…at least I think so…)

"Really?" Gabriella asked, "How far have you gotten in it?"

"It's my second time reading it," Sharpay replied, looking away embarrassedly.

"I must have read that book like three times!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"Really?" Sharpay asked, turning to face her.

"Yeah…I mean, it just draws you in!"

"I know!" Sharpay said smiling, "And Fabio's death at the end was a complete surprise!"

Gabriella agreed, talking with Sharpay about that book and some other they had read for most of the period…

Kelsi sat at the balcony table during lunch that day, it was the only table she had been able to save…and boy was it a good thing that she had. She looked up as Jason place a tray next to her, he had insisted on buying her lunch that day, claiming she had to at least try the cafeteria food once. Her gaze drifted however, when she saw a bunch of students…they looked like some of the skaters and academics…practically running up the stairs together. If anything good had come out of the whole Troy and Sharpay fiasco it was that all the different groups had something else to target their thoughts at, they were all getting along rather well now that Kelsi thought about it…

But her thoughts took a turn for the worst when she saw the skaters opening some sort of plastic bottle with a disgusting looking bluish brown liquid in it. Her eyes widened as she shook Jason's arm. He looked up and followed her gaze before getting up quickly and heading over to them. Usually, when someone had a liquid open near the railing of the balcony, it meant that they were going to pour it on someone.

He grabbed the skater dudette's arm before she had a chance to turn the bottle and empty its contents on the pour soul who wandered beneath it. He took the bottle, glaring at them as they walked away. He leaned over, peering down to see Sharpay and Troy standing just beneath him. Kelsi walked over to him, looking down as well to see who they were about to pour the liquid on, when Troy looked up. He caught brief glimpse of Jason and Kelsi smiling at him before he was pulled away by Sharpay…

7th period would find the boys playing one last game of basketball while the girls sat on the bleachers watching. Sharpay felt a little bit better, none of the girls were sitting near her…but none of them were talking about her either…which was good enough for her.

Zeke walked back into the gym after having gotten a quick sip of water from the water fountain in the boy's locker room when he saw two boys pointing at Sharpay, who was focused on the game. One of the boys smirked and nodded, taking a few steps in he direction. Zeke walked around the game so he could intercept the boy before he got too close to Sharpay.

His eyes narrowed when he saw the boy get ready to chuck the ball at her. He knew from experience that getting hit with a basketball really hurt. The boy chucked it just as Zeke walked in front of its path, catching the ball as if it had been passed to him. He passed it back to the boy as hard as he could, knocking some wind out of him. He glared at the boy nodding for him to go back to his friend. He did so as Zeke looked over his shoulder to see Sharpay looking at him gratefully; she had seen what he'd done. He simply gave her a small smiled before jumping into the game…

Sharpay was waiting in the hall for Troy…everyone had been acting really weird today…no one was really talking about her anymore…the gang was smiling at her…and Gabriella and she had had a civil conversation…

There was only one explanation…there was something in the water…

"Hey Shar…" she heard a tentative voice said beside her.

She looked over to see Ryan walking towards her, an apologetic smile on his face, "Hey Ry…"

He sighed, with his sister it was better to get right to the point, "I'm so sorry for what I said to you Shar…I really and truly didn't mean any of it."

She looked at him, he was apologizing, but before she could forgive him she had to say something, "It really hurt me Ry…you know how much it gets to me when_ other_ people say things like that…can you imagine how much it hurt when it came from _you_?" He looked down, "And it wasn't even the first time you said something like that." He looked up; shocked…she had heard him? She nodded, reading his thoughts, "I heard you," she confirmed, "I heard what you said to the guys when you thought I wasn't around."

"I'm so sorry Shar, I was…I was just…stupid." He really was. How could he have said all those horrible things about his sister? How could he have not defended her when they mocked her shamelessly? He thought back to what he had said a month ago…she had never actually forced him to give up the golf team…it had been his own choice, he could have done both he realized now, making him feel all the more guilty about saying that to her.

Sharpay smiled softly, she could tell how badly he was beating himself up over all this. 'Damn twin telepathy,' she thought. If it hadn't been for that, she probably would have been able to really give it to him for how he'd made her feel…but she couldn't. "I forgive you."

"What?" he asked, looking up quickly, hope and happiness filling his eyes.

"I forgive you, you goof!" She laughed slightly as Ryan picked her up in a hug and spun her around. When she caught her breath after he'd put her down she added one more thing, "Just don't do it again."

"I promise," he replied as fast as possible, he crossed his heart. "Thank Shar."

"You're welcome," she said giving him a smile.

"Hey Pay," Troy said walking up and giving her a small kiss on the cheek.

"Hi," she said, looking over his shoulder to see Gabriella, Zeke, Chad, Jason, Kelsi, and Taylor walking up behind him.

"Hey…guys…" Troy said after a moment.

They smiled, "Hey Troy, Hey Sharpay," they'd said. They fell into an awkward kind of silence for a few moments before Taylor spoke.

"Hey Sharpay…" Taylor started, taking a step towards her, "Can I talk to you a minute?"

Sharpay nodded, "Yeah, sure," she said, taking a few steps away with Taylor. She waited a few moments as she watched Taylor debate the best way to start.

"My little brother" she said after a moment or two, "…Charlie…he broke his arm last year…he had to spend the weekend at the hospital till they could get him for surgery."

"Charlie…" Sharpay trailed off in thought. She looked back up at Taylor, "He liked…um…"

"The Little Engine That Could," they said at the same time.

Taylor nodded, "My mom and I went to go see him after lunch, and we were preparing ourselves for him to be crying and begging us to take him home but …he wasn't." She laughed as tears came to her eyes, "He was laughing and playing with the kids, and…and he told us about a girl from my school who came to read them stories. He said that since he was new, he was allowed to pick the story and the girl read it to him…that was you?" Sharpay nodded, Taylor looked down at the ground, "I'm so sorry Sharpay…"

"It's ok," Sharpay said, cutting her off.

"No!" Taylor remarked, "No, it's not! I acted more like an ice bitch to you than you ever did to me."

Sharpay laughed, shaking her head, "I doubt that…"

Taylor laughed as well, "Friends?" she asked.

Sharpay nodded, "Friends," she confirmed before being pulled into a hug by Taylor.

"So what are we doing today?" Gabriella asked walking up to the two with Kelsi.

Sharpay's eyes widened…she was stunned into silence till Troy walked over to her and nudged her gently in the side. "Oh…um…I volunteer…at an orphaninch…teaching crafts…"

"What are you making today?" Kelsi asked eyes wide in excitement.

"Well…I bought some lanyards…" Sharpay trailed.

"I love lanyards!" All three of the girls shouted, two of them taking one of Sharpay's arms and leading her away with the third girl in tow, all talking excitedly while Sharpay looked slightly terrified.

"Women…" Chad said shaking his head before walking off after Taylor with Zeke, Jason, and Ryan.

Troy stood in the hall way a moment longer, smiling and shaking his head. Sharpay was definitely some woman…

He looked up when he heard the door at the end of the hall open once again. There was Sharpay, walking towards him, a vision in white…

The scene before him dissolved as another one took its place. Troy's smile widened as he watched Sharpay walking down the aisle behind Taylor, Gabriella, and Kelsi who were dressed in their baby blue bride's maids dresses. She walked gracefully, nearly floating, as her simple white gown flowed around her. He glanced over at Chad, standing beside him as the Best Man, Jason, Zeke, and Ryan stood just behind him. Chad smirked, nodding his head for Troy to turn back around.

He held out his hand as Sharpay stepped closer. They looked out at all their friends and family coming together on this very special day. Mother's crying and father beaming proudly.

One face in the audience smiled gently at the two, old eyes twinkling. Troy nodded slightly at the man, who nodded in reply. Troy and Sharpay owed him much…when they were nearing graduation time he had come to East High looking for them…he wanted them to audition for Wicked! He had seen them singing and had been trying to find them and find time to meet them for nearly a year. They had auditioned, going to college together in NY, earning understudy positions. Just as they graduated, they were moved up to the actual performers, Fiyero and Elphaba…it was a dream come true!

Troy smiled at the memory of the day they got the call for the leads before he turned back to Sharpay, "You ready?" he asked.

She smiled, "Yes." And with that, she took his hand and turned to face the priest…

A/N – It's over! Now what am I going to do with my life? I should probably start that home work I've been putting off all semester…yeah, that would be a good idea…But anyway, what do you think?! I tried to fade the scene from school to wedding, while also adding in something from the past, when they went public to the school. I don't think I'll write a sequel, I think I'll just leave it as a…

And they both lived…Happily…Ever…After…

The End


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